Spark
by Amaterasu the Ninetails
Summary: The life of a boy named Silver, who, as a child, was saved by a Luxio in a tragic house fire. Losing his parents, the Luxio raises him on his own. This is the story of how their team comes together, and how they discover what really happened when his parents were killed.
1. One

Hello, it's Amaterasu from the future~

I would just like to start off by saying that I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this so far. My muse has never been higher for writing. Updates may take a while, but in no way do I plan on quitting.

That being said, I really enjoy feedback. Constructive criticism is most definitely welcome, as it helps me make myself better.

Thanks, and please enjoy!

* * *

The moon's light reflected off of the dew drops of the glistening leaves housed by the thick patch of trees below. The soft wind tried to convince them to leave the green landing pads, nudging, shaking them gently. Silence was disrupted by the crunching of leaves as a creature padded by. The near silent creature stepped through the slightly moist ground covered in the debris of sticks and leaves that had finished their turns taking place on the housing trees. It kept moving slowly, it's slick black and blue fur reflecting the soft white glow of the moon. It's eyes glowed a bright yellow, as it moved slowly, static flowing through its fur as it gave off a slight glow. It looked ahead, seeing a fire upon a human building ahead. The glow of its fur became stronger as its travel came to a stop. Faint shouts were heard in the distance. The creature gulped, and decided to run towards the flaming building.

"You've got to get them out of there!" a fireman, controlling a hose, shouted to another few, who were running into the building. They ran into the strong smoke, searching for people. Moving quickly, they moved through the building that was once a home. Walls were collapsing, the ceiling was falling apart. They frantically searched for any signs of life.

"I found someone!" one of them shouted, moving out the door, supporting a woman who seemed to be unconscious, struggling to cling on to life. He helped her out of the building, and got her into an ambulance.

Another firefighter was searching another part of the building, and found a man, also unconscious. "I found another!" he shouted, helping the man up and getting him out of the thick, unbreathable air.

Two more men were in the building, unsuccessful in finding anyone else. One of them noticed a string hanging from the ceiling, leading to an attic. The man quickly pulled the string, bringing down the ladder. He unfolded it and climbed up the ladder to see if anyone was up there. He looked around, his sight failing him due to the smoke, but then he heard a faint coughing sound. He looked towards the direction the noise came from, and saw a little boy, trapped in the corner due to the partially collapsed roof. The man shouted down to the others that he found a kid, and climbed up into the attic. The attic floor shook, soon going to give way. It was a good drop, so if the attic collapsed where the child was, he would not survive.

"Hey!" the man shouted to the kid. "Hold tight! You're going to be okay!"

The kid, weak, looked over to the man. He kept coughing, unable to breathe properly, about to lose consciousness.

The man made his way towards the kid and tried to lift the collapsed part of the roof, but he couldn't do it.

"Help…" the kid muttered. The man tried and tried to get the roof up, but to no avail.

"Hold on big guy, I got you." he said to the poor kid. He didn't know if he actually did, though.

It shook again, a creaking sound following, meaning that the ceiling was going to give way in a matter of seconds.

A shudder. A crack. A boom.

A collapse.

The man watched as the patch of ceiling fell to the ground, watching the kid fall with it. How could this happen? How could he not save him?

But the boy didn't hit the ground.

The man looked to his left, seeing a small Pokémon holding the kid's shirt collar between his teeth. The creature had saved the kid's life.

So far.

The Pokémon dug its claws into the remaining section of ground. Stepping back a little more every few seconds, sliding forward, struggling to keep grip.

The man managed to push the collapsed part of the roof out of the way. He grabbed the kid, with the Pokémon's help, and held him in his arms.

"Come on!" he said to the Pokémon as he headed back to the ladder. The man was followed down the ladder by the creature. They both ran towards the door, the man holding the small child in his arms. They both made it out the door, the entire building collapsing into a large pile of wood and ash as they made their escape. The building's remains was engulfed in flames.

The man made it to another ambulance and got the kid in there. They set him on a gurney, and gave him an oxygen mask. The kid was almost unconscious.

As they were about to close the doors, the Pokémon jumped into the vehicle with its last bit of strength. It climbed up to the kid. The kid looked back at it.

 _A… Luxio_? he almost didn't have the strength to have the thought go through his mind. _They… exist?_

The Luxio's face was the last thing he saw before losing consciousness.


	2. Two

Silver stretched his arms as he slowly woke up. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, yawning. He stretched his back out a little bit, before moving his legs off of the bed and standing up. He walked out of the bedroom and through the house, making it to the kitchen. He went to a cabinet and took out a bowl and a box of cereal. He poured out some cereal into the bowl before going to the fridge to retrieve some milk. He took a gallon jug and poured some milk into his bowl, putting away the cereal and the milk afterwards. He took his bowl and a spoon and moved to the dining room table. He sat down and ate his breakfast.

As Silver ate his breakfast, his Pokémon walked in through the hallway. A Luxray.

"Good morning, Spark." Silver said. He had named him 'Spark', due to how his body would give off electricity.

Spark nodded to him. He didn't make much noise, knowing that Silver couldn't understand him, so he just used body language to communicate.

Spark made his way over to Silver and sat down next to him, waiting for Silver to finish his meal. This was a normal routine for them.

Silver finished his breakfast, got up, and put his bowl into the sink in his kitchen.

He then walked past Spark again and went back to his room. Spark was confused, and got up to follow and see what he was up to. This wasn't something usual.

Silver was sitting on his bed, typing away on his laptop as Spark walked in. Spark moved over towards Silver's bed, jumped up onto it, and went over to Silver to see what he was up to.

Being able to read, Spark reviewed what was on the digital screen. Even though he understood what he was using, as it said 'PSPad' on the top of the window, he didn't understand what he was doing. All he could see was a bunch of brackets, abbreviations, numbers and parameters, with the occasional appearances of the words 'earpiece' and 'speech'.

Spark kept looking through, trying to figure out why it was there, what it was for, and what Silver was doing typing this.

Silver noticed Spark's presence.

"Oh, hi, Spark." he said. "I'm programming something."

Spark was confused as to what, but Silver answered, as if he was reading his mind.

"It's meant for something I'm trying to make this thing do." he picked up a small earpiece, something he usually used for his video game. "I… don't exactly want to tell you what it'll do, yet… But it'll make things a lot easier! You'll see!"

Spark watched him type away. Silver eventually moved the window to the side, Spark catching some text in the bottom right corner.

Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview

Evaluation copy. Build 10130

Spark had no idea what a 'Windows' was, or what his little laptop had to do with 10 of them, but the thought soon left his mind.

Silver clicked on a small bar on the bottom left of the screen with the words 'Ask me anything' in it next to a circle.

A small window protruded out of it, with a spinning circle design above the words 'Can I be of assistance?' underneath.

Silver typed in 'Pokémon speech patterns' into the box on the bottom and hit enter. A new window opened titled 'Microsoft Edge' with a white 'e' design in the middle against a blue background. It was soon replaced with a search page, and Silver visited a few links.

Spark felt a little weirded out and decided to stand up. He hopped off of the bed and headed out the door.

Silver watched him leave, sighed, and closed the laptop and set it down. He followed Spark out of the room.

"Alright, let's go and train." Silver said. Training is what they usually did. Spark perked up and they both headed out the door.

They both headed through some thick woods, not far from behind their house. They travelled pretty far from their home until there was absolutely no sign of people whatsoever. Spark's eyes glowed gold for a moment. He acted startled, and quickly moved the direction he was facing. Silver had never seen Spark act like this before. He wondered what it was.

Spark ran in the same direction, Silver struggling to keep up. They soon came across an injured Pokémon, a Ninetales. A shiny Ninetales. It seemed to have its right hind leg badly injured.

Spark went up to it and inspected its leg, and Silver got down on one knee next to it. The Ninetales' red eyes looked into his. He almost felt like he was being hypnotized.

"Let's take it to the house." he said, not breaking eye contact with the Ninetales. "Maybe we can help it."

Spark nodded. He slowly helped the Ninetales up.

Silver paused when he looked away from the Ninetales' eyes. He never thought of that. Was his mind being controlled? He looked back to the Ninetales who was giving him a sly grin, almost in a humorous manner.

Silver shook his head and forced himself to dismiss it, deciding that he would worry about it later. He decided to just pick up the Ninetales, since it wasn't that heavy. 50 pounds at the most.

They made their way to the house. Silver kept looking at the admittedly pretty creature. He was surprised how well the creature was holding up with a possibly broken leg.

"You alright?" he asked the poor fox.

It made a small hum sound. Silver wasn't sure what that meant, but at least it wasn't dead or something.

He got into the house, and set the Ninetales gently on his couch. He turned and moved to his room. He searched for something that would help it. He looked in his closet and found some gauze. Perfect. He thought.

He went back to the injured Ninetales. He inspected its leg carefully to see what exactly happened. On close inspection, it didn't look like an actual break… it looked like a gunshot wound.

Silver turned to the kitchen and searched through some drawers, looking for some tweezers. He searched through three before being successful. He went to the Ninetales once more, tweezers in hand.

"This might hurt." he said to it. "I'll try to make it as quick and painless as possible, but if it hurts, please know that I don't intend it to. Okay?"

The Ninetales sighed, looking away.

Silver found where the wound was. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and put the tweezers near the wound. He quickly retrieved the bullet successfully, virtually painless to the Ninetales.

Silver dropped the bullet on a table next to the Ninetales. "Got it." he said. The Ninetales looked at the bullet, inspecting it. "That was in your leg." Silver said.

Silver then picked up the gauze, unraveled it, and wrapped it around the Ninetales' leg. This caught it off guard; it was still focused on the bullet.

Silver finished wrapping the gauze around its leg. He looked at the Ninetales' face as it looked back at him. Its eyes were so captivating… It was like he was being hypnotized once again.

He sat there, staring into its eyes, not realizing that Spark was right next to him. The Ninetales stared back. Unbeknownst to Silver, the Ninetales was going through his thoughts and memories, learning about what kind of person he was. Most Ninetales' could control other's minds, but this one could search through them and talk into them as well. Even if it was subtle.

Silver then noticed a tear escape one of the Ninetales' eyes. She was seeing the part of his memory when he was saved by Spark, and when he had realized that Pokémon actually existed, and realized that his parents didn't make it.. It was sad, but also beautiful to her. Mixed emotions. It made her subtly cry.

"Are you okay?" Silver asked. "Is it your leg?"

He could've sworn that she was taking it like a champ.

The Ninetales didn't break eye contact for some strange reason. Silver was getting a little worried.

She discovered that he was raised by Spark before he was capable enough of taking care of himself. Spark had taken a huge burden onto himself by choice.

The Ninetales had finally had enough. She turned her head.

"What's wrong?" Silver asked. Did she know something he didn't?

The Ninetales took a deep breath. It tried standing up, but couldn't due to its injured leg. It kept trying, but failed.

"I'd recommend staying still." Silver said. "You don't want to make matters worse."

The Ninetales stopped trying to move and sighed. She looked out the window. It was starting to get dark already.

Silver noticed this. "Look, you can come in my room for the night, or stay in here. What would you want to do?"

The Ninetales looked down the hallway towards Silver's room, then back to him. She flicked her head towards his room.

Silver didn't know why or how she knew where his room was, but he dismissed it.

"Alright." he said. He gently picked her up, and moved to his room. When they got to his room, Silver placed her carefully at the foot of his bed. "There you are."

The Ninetales watched him as he got into his bed, not thinking about changing his clothes. He planned on taking a shower in the morning.

"Hopefully you'll be able to rest." he said. "If you can't, I'm sorry. I'll get up if that's the case."

The Ninetales appreciated his attitude. It was rare. He was very caring.

Silver covered himself with the blanket.

"Goodnight…" he said. "Oh, and if you need anything, don't hesitate to let me know."

The Ninetales nodded, settling down.

Within about fifteen minutes, Silver was asleep.

Noticing this, the Ninetales sat up. She looked at Silver further out of curiosity. She then looked around his poorly lit room, still being able to see. She didn't see anything very interesting, but then saw his laptop, having no idea what it was.

She got up and limped off of the bed. She looked at the closed laptop, inspecting it. Not figuring it out, she eventually dismissed it.

She looked back at Silver before making her way back up onto the bed. She moved over to him and lied down next to him, them both facing each other.

She set her head onto his pillow and closed her eyes before going to sleep.

* * *

 **Chapter 3 is still being worked on. It is much longer than this chapter. Please stay tuned!**


	3. Three

**9** _ **Years ago.**_

It was another considerably peaceful night. The streets were slick, the night was young, and the moon was shining brightly. For just about anyone it would be a great night to stay awake, and enjoy the nocturnal world for once. One in particular, however, found themselves forced to.

 _I've got to get out of here. I don't care where I'll go, I just need to be done with this._

This particular one found themselves scrambling through what had become a forest of some sort. The creature moved quickly; moving away from the residential area of the town.

How am I supposed to live like this? He used to be so nice, but now that I've become stronger he's become crazy, power hungry! He expects me to become a slave of his!

It moved as fast as it had started. On four feet, it made its way to the point where there was no sign of human civilization. It stopped and fell face-first into the ground; not much of a fall, but physically evident nonetheless.

 _I can't live like this. I… I… I just can't…_

The creature let out a sigh.

 _But now I have to. I'm not going back. As much as I feel like passing out, I'll fight on. This time, for my own good._

It got back up. Looking around, the rather large being searched for shelter. Seeing a cave-like entrance between the ground and the base of a large tree, it made its way to said hole.

It seemed abandoned, according to the scent, so the creature entered. It was, indeed, abandoned.

* * *

Years passed. The being had very much taught itself how to survive on its own. It was now independent; didn't need or want anyone's help.

Sitting alone in the den-like area she had been living in since she had left her former trainer. She had made it as an improvised home, and it worked.

She sat there, thinking. Her yellow eyes gazed towards the exit to the wilderness, mentally debating whether or not she should leave and go somewhere. She wasn't hungry. She wasn't tired, either. For once, she had been bored.

She then came up with an idea. She used to love to swim. Could she find some water?

She slowly got up and stretched before heading out. She looked around to see if there was a specific direction she could think of to go to reach some sort of large water source. She thought of the stream that she visited normally for water, and decided that she would follow it to see where it led.

She started moving towards the stream, the path easily familiar. She traveled on all fours; she didn't have to, but she much preferred to. It was faster, easier, and more comfortable.

She soon reached the stream. She then looked both directions and started traveling along one way; it didn't really matter to her.

She traveled along for a while, a lake in sight a good distance away. She moved quicker, anxious to be able to enjoy something once again.

She was close to arriving, but froze when she heard a raucous of noises from a house that she had happened to pass by. The only house. She had never seen it before.

 _One house near the lake in the middle of nowhere. What's up with that?_

She looked silently as she listened in onto whatever was happening in the small building. She could hear a man yelling, but couldn't make out any words. She was quiet as she tried to make them out, but the sound was too muffled, as good as her ears were.

The voice was then quiet for a moment. She tried to listen for anything, but it soon wasn't difficult; she then heard gunshots.

 _I don't know what's going on in there, but I don't want to be involved!_

She wanted to run as fast as she could, but she remained frozen. She couldn't figure out what was happening.

She watched as then a ninetales - a shiny ninetales - ran out of the building. A man came out behind her, pointing the gun at it.

She felt her heart lurch as she realized who the man was.

Her former trainer.

She found the will to move at that point. The man was aiming down the length of his pistol at the fleeing creature as she came down on top of him like a truck.

The man was in shock, seemingly not realizing that his gun was knocked out of his hand and had tumbled across the ground. He blinked a few times as his eyes came back into focus. He then experienced another wave of shock as he realized who it was that had come on top of him.

"Sw- Sw- Swampert…?" he said with disbelief. "I thought you were dead…"

She placed her left hand around his neck, causing him to freak out.

"Wait!" he shouted before she did so much as move her other arm back. "Please! Don't hurt me, I'm sorry!"

She froze with her right arm raised beside her head, hand balled in a fist. Her face showed that she wasn't up for playing games with him.

"I- I don't know what got into me." he said. He gasped for breath, grabbing the large hand on his neck. "I've gone to ruins since you've left. Please. Give me another chance."

She stayed there, motionless. She thought about it. She took into consideration what she had just seen, and was more than unsure. Then she realized that if he were to change it would be for the best, and if he was lying she would have one more reason to beat him to a pulp. She hadn't fought in a long time and kinda wanted to.

She slowly put her arm down, seeing what he would do. He watched her intently, his face showing believable fear.

She slowly got up off of him. Watching closely, she made sure he didn't try anything funny. Deep inside, she wanted to see him nice again, but she had a feeling such was a false hope.

She got off of him entirely, standing up like a human, towering over him.

He stumbled as he tried getting up. His muscles were obviously weak. He slightly shook as he stood.

He coughed, possibly from short-term damage caused by the Swampert putting her weight on top of him. For a moment she almost felt bad, but she snapped out of it relatively quickly.

His eyes locked with hers as he scooted himself back. His breathing was heavy, obviously terrified of his former party member. She had gotten much bigger since he had seen her last. She looked much stronger.

"Okay." he choked. "Thank you. It's… it's nice of you… to have mercy… on me... You probably feel that I deserve to be… punished…"

 _That's right. You do._

"But I'm just... I'm so sorry…"

He looked down and covered his face with his hands. "What have I done?" he muttered.

 _Wait, is he… crying?_

"I could've been better to you… but I blew it!" he sobbed. "Things had to turn out this way, didn't they?"

She watched him, and started to hear the old him. He said those exact words when she was a Mudkip and was seriously injured in a battle - a definite loss from the start. She felt as if her heartstrings had been slightly tugged.

Despite the previous events, including what happened with the Ninetales, she decided that that would be something to be taken care of when the time was right. Knowing the Ninetales, she was certain they would take care of themselves pretty well. The Ninetales was a few hundred years old, after all.

She moved towards him slowly, trying her best to make sure that he wasn't doing anything tricky.

Watching intently, she reached over and set her large hand gently on his shoulder, thinking that he must be hurting pretty badly for it to drive him to act the way he does. He slowly looked up to her, making eye contact.

"You know I could've been better, you know that…"

She gently pulled him towards her and gave him a hug; the last thing either of them thought would happen.

He kept mumbling as she held him. Admittedly, there were times that she missed being with him, the times he was nice.

Unknown to her, he had one arm reached behind him. He slowly and steadily pulled something out of his back pocket.

 _I miss this. Spending time in his embrace, just enjoying our time like we us-_

She was stopped mid-thought as she felt an agonizing, sharp pain in her left side. She froze and loosened her grasp on the man, stumbling back. She looked to the source of the pain, seeing a small serrated knife buried into her tough skin. She looked back to him, seeing that he enjoyed her pain.

"You forgot how good I am with acting." he said. "And with knives."

She clenched her teeth at the pain. She reached and pulled at the knife before feeling even more pain than before. She clenched her fists, looking up towards him with her head tilted downwards.

"Well, how stupid are you?" he teased. "The knife is serrated. The more you pull on it, the deeper it lodges into you."

Water started to well in her eyes from the pain. It was absolutely cruel.

 _What could ever drive someone to do such a horrible, horrific thing?_

"You left me, now it's time for me to get my revenge." he taunted. Before he knew it, she had leaped onto him once more, but rather than directly on top of him, she jumped to his side, grabbing him by the side, swinging him around her in the direction she was moving, using the momentum to throw him.

He slammed into a tree at about 4 feet in the air, landing on his back in front of it.

He had barely recovered from the shock when he watched her charge towards him on all fours - something that she seemed to only do when furious, from what he remembered - jumped in the air, and landed right over him.

She crept up face to face with him until their noses almost touched. She slammed her fists into the ground one at a time, creating large indents where they were, shaking the ground on each impact. Face to face with each other, she let out an infuriated roar of some kind, something she hadn't exactly done before.

She remained in the same stance for a moment. She stared him down, him looking back at her, his chin raised, looking at her down his nose. His breathing was unsteady and through his teeth; he knew he had made a mistake from the start, and wanted it done and over with.

They remained motionless, and it seemed like time had frozen.

"You gonna kill me or what?" he said. "Might as well before I end up hurting the other four, right?"

She put a hand around his neck and pressed him into the tree.

"Torturing me will make me angrier, you know that." he said. "You know how I am."

 _Should I disable you? Or should I kill you outright?_

He let out a sigh. "Doesn't it seem like I want to die, anyways?"

She glared at him.

 _Since when were you so dark? The things you're saying and doing are just awful…_

The pain started to grow on her left side. The knife was still lodged there.

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention… that blade's material can be poisonous… better get it out before it does permanent damage… assuming it hasn't already."

Part of her believed him. He was a connoisseur of knives, and he knew everything there was to know about them.

 _Should I just leave him here?_

She thought that wouldn't be a problem for now. She would have to come back for him later, but she needed attention. She started backing off of him, not breaking eye contact with him.

Beginning to turn around, she ended up nudging his gun that had been knocked away from him before. Looking down at it, she lifted a fist above it, and pounded it on top of the gun's barrel, crushing it. She didn't want him to have another opportunity to hurt her or anyone else with it.

She then turned around and left quickly, hoping to find someone to help her out. She was getting a little dizzy, losing a significant amount of blood. She didn't think much of anything bad of it, but more of 'just one of those things'.

The pain increased steadily - it soon became painful to breathe. She knew something had to be done about the knife, but where would she go? She was in the middle of nowhere.

 _Maybe I could backtrack to where I live. I'll go from there_.

And so she did quite literally that. She quickly backtracked to where she lived.

Upon arrival, she chose to continue going in the direction she was already traveling.

After traveling for a significant amount of time, she eventually found a city, entering it as she came out of the wooded area she was in. At this point, the pain was unbelievably intense. She collapsed from it; she didn't have much ability to balance.

Gasping for air, she struggled to keep consciousness.

If I pass out, someone better find me.

She crawled forward a few more steps before she couldn't move any further. She had made to the side of a road where a small car, she saw, screeched to a halt.

A man, coming out of the car, ran up to her and inspected her, seeing what exactly happened to her.

"Are you okay?" he said to her. "Are you still awake?"

She looked up to him with what energy she had left. She let out a small huff of air.

"You're gonna be okay. Just stay awake for me, alright?" he pulled out his phone and tapped on it a few times before putting it to his ear.

He started talking to someone about the situation. He was soon done.

"Help is on the way." he said, kneeling next to her. He set his hand on her head and started to pet her.

"I'm sorry for whatever happened." he saw the knife, realizing that this wasn't an accident. "No one should ever have to go through something like this."

Her eyelids were getting heavy. It was hard to keep them open, but she didn't want to be defeated.

The man tried his best to comfort her, but it was difficult. He didn't know how to help, but he did his best.

 _Please, just let it stop… I don't care if I pass out, just let it stop…_

Soon enough, she did, indeed, pass out.

* * *

"What are you doing, exactly?"

The ninetales opened her eyes. She saw Silver looking back at her. She had one of her paws on his face, lying directly in front of him.

She moved her paw off of him and quickly sat up. Silver sat up as well giving her a funny look.

"Imagine waking up like that yourself." he said to the ninetales. "Someone you just met?" He chuckled. He usually laughed off awkward situations.

She looked away from him, embarrassed.

Silver patted her head, catching her off guard. "It's alright. Don't worry about it."

She looked back towards him, then towards the laptop she was looking at the night before.

Silver noticed her curiosity of his computer. "You like my laptop?" he asked. He uncovered himself from the blankets and reached for the laptop. He grabbed it and set it on his lap. He opened it, and the screen lit up, displaying the code that he was working on the morning before.

The ninetales moved next to Silver, looking at the screen. She surveyed the text in the window. She then gave Silver a sly look, as if she knew what he was up to.

Silver noticed this, but said nothing. How could a Pokémon, probably never had seen a computer before, understand code anyways?

The ninetales was omnilingual. She had the ability to understand languages without much or any prior experience, and this included computer code. It was a very strange ability, but she wasn't exactly what you would call normal.

Silver typed and edited as the ninetales looked on with him. He kept trying to get around problems, and, after a while, he succeeded with his troubleshooting.

He ran a command prompt to test the stability and simulate the program. It showed the percentages of completion of the tests as he sat and waited for them to complete. He was hoping that it would pass.

The tests completed, and it showed the program was stable, 0 errors found.

Silver looked to the ninetales and smiled. He grabbed the earpiece off of his table and hooked it up to his computer. He clicked a button, and the program downloaded to the earpiece. He unplugged it once it finished, and he put it on his right ear, and switched it on, looking at the ninetales.

He waited for her to do something, but she didn't, causing them to just stare at each other.

"Why do you intend on staring at me so much?" the ninetales asked. Silver heard the speech come through the earpiece's speaker.

Silver's let out a small coughing noise in amazement. He smiled, mouth gaping.

"Yes! It works!" he said. "I can understand you!"

The ninetales gave him a funny look. "You what now?"

"Yeah!" he said. "I've been working at this forever! I can't believe it finally worked!"

She stood up and looked at him blankly. "That's certainly something, now isn't it?" she said sarcastically.

"Sure is!" he said back. He was still excited about his new creation. He found a way to understand Pokémon!

"So…" the ninetales said. "What's the practicality in such a device? I mean, you already get an idea of what we are thinking."

"The practicality?" Silver said. "It can help us brainstorm, help each other out, come across decisions, and be able to have actual conversations!"

"Okay…" she said. She didn't understand that most Pokémon couldn't speak telekinetically.

Silver started to calm down from his excitement. "So, as I asked earlier…" he said. "What exactly where you doing? I mean, the way you were lying next to me last night? Don't you find that at least a _little_ weird?"

The ninetales paused to think of a way to explain her thoughts. Instead of starting with a long speech, she decided to keep it simple.

"So you wouldn't have another nightmare." she said. She seemed to have confidence in the statement.

Silver paused. "Huh?"

"Yeah. You heard me right. Your earpiece isn't broken. I didn't want you to have to deal with another nightmare."

Silver didn't say anything.

"You've been having nightmares recently. Of losing your friend, yes?"

Silver slowly nodded. He was utterly confused as to how she knew what she did.

"I stopped you from having another."

Silver collected his thoughts. "…how does that even _work?_ I mean, you wouldn't have to put your paw on my face though! _"_

"Have you ever done your research?" the ninetales asked. "Look up my kind. You might learn a thing or two."

They stood, looking at each other.

"Go ahead. I'll wait." the ninetales said, sitting down, getting herself comfortable.

Silver slowly moved towards his laptop. He picked it up, and looked up 'Ninetales'.

He searched through a few links, and eventually found a few points that caught his interest. One in particular, however, blew his mind entirely.

'Ninetales casts a sinister light from its bright red eyes to gain total control over its foe's mind.'

Silver closed his laptop and set it down. "You can control my mind…" he said. He sat down on his bed and let that sink in. "But, only if we're looking at each other. I was asleep."

"I'm not exactly a normal ninetales, either." The ninetales hopped onto his bed and sat next to him. "I can also read it." she said.

Silver took a deep breath. "Okay…"

"Don't worry about any personal business. I don't hold those kind of things over anyone's heads. Your secrets are safe with me."

Silver was quiet for a moment. "Thanks…?" he said in a questionable tone. He wasn't sure whether to be thankful or mad. She would just get into his thoughts like that? Or was she lying?

She understood what he was going through. Everyone felt the same way about this kind of thing, it's the reason it's hard for her to be who she is at times.

"I know it's a difficult thing to understand and all, but it means that I'll be able to understand you better, right?" she said.

Silver looked at her. "What are you _talking_ about?"

"Well, I-"

"I didn't mean that I wanted you to _explain_ it!" Silver was upset with it. "If you can read my mind, you would understand that too, wouldn't you?"

"Well, sorry!" she said, taking a step back. "Didn't mean to burst your bubble!"

"Things don't always go your way though, do they?"

"Apparently not!" She didn't know why they were arguing all of the sudden. "I'm just trying to help you out!"

Silver was about to throw another statement out, but he realized that he was being stupid. He sat down and calmed himself down.

"I'm sorry…" he said, taking a breath. "I just… have my moments…"

The ninetales moved back towards him, lied down next to him, and set her head down on his lap, looking at him.

"I'm the one that should be sorry…" she said. "I intruded into something personal of yours. I shouldn't have."

Silver sighed. "You're alright. I'm not mad at you, it's just…" he thought on it. "It just took me by surprise. That's all."

She smiled. She was thankful for him finding her.

Silver looked at her leg. He had forgotten about it. "How's your leg doing?" he asked her.

"My leg?" she said. She looked at her leg. "Fine, I'd assume."

"That's good." Silver said. "It might take a few days for it to fully heal, but you're lucky you don't have a broken bone. The bullet didn't go through your leg entirely."

She nodded. "Yeah…"

Silver noticed that she seemed deep into thought. "Something wrong?"

"No." she said. "I'm just… thinking…"

"About?"

"Nothing you should worry about." she said.

"Come on." Silver said. "You get all up into my every thought, but you won't tell me about one of yours?"

She sighed. "I just don't want you to worry. I can't stand it when others worry."

Silver understood. "Talking about things makes you feel better, you know."

She slowly stood up. "I'll tell you later if it becomes an issue. I promise."

Silver stood up as well as the ninetales hopped off of his bed. "You do that."

They both left the room. "Want something to eat?"

The ninetales was a little surprised. "You would do that?"

"Well, yeah." he said. "Anything for a friend."

The Ninetales thought on it. A friend? This kid was really nice. She thought _she_ had mood swings.

"You can get yourself whatever you want to get in the kitchen, I'm sure Spark won't have a problem showing you what we have." he said. "I'm gonna get a change of clothes and take a shower."

"Ha!" the Ninetales laughed. She gave him a funny look with a smile. "How long did it take for you to think of that one?"

"Oh, ha ha." Silver said back, taking the earpiece off. "At least I don't smell you."

The Ninetales gave him a playful glare. "No wonder you don't have a girlfriend."

Silver then grabbed some clothes and left for the bathroom. The ninetales got up and left the room, looking for Spark.

She left the room and looked out into the hall, not seeing anyone. She went down the hall, going into the living room that she was in the day before. There, she saw Spark, lying down on the couch. Spark watched as she entered the room.

"How's your leg?" Spark asked in a rather low pitch.

"Better…" the ninetales said. "It's not as bad."

Spark nodded. "So, what's your name?"

The ninetales paused. "My name?"

"Yeah, your name."

"Uh…" she didn't know an easy way to explain. "I… don't have… a name…"

Spark was confused. "What do you mean you don't have a name? What do you expect me to call you? 'It'?"

She sighed, slowly shaking her head. "I don't know… Ninetales, I guess…"

Spark thought. "What do you _want_ to be called?"

The ninetales was caught off guard by the question. "I never really thought about that before… I don't really care that much… so I guess it doesn't really matter."

"Of course it does!" Spark insisted. "Your name says a lot about you. Trust me."

She thought once more. "Do you think Silver should name me?"

Spark shook his head, looking at the ground. "That's your call. Your name, not mine."

She nodded. That was probably what she was going to do.

"So, uh…" she wanted to start a different conversation. "How long have you been with Silver?"

Spark thought, doing the math in his head. "I'd say… around 7 years or so."

The ninetales nodded before sitting down. "How old are you, exactly?"

Spark thinks on it once again. These weren't hard to figure out, but he just wasn't asked at all.

"Hmm…" he hummed. "I've probably been around for… 13 years? I'm younger than Silver, he's 16."

She nodded. "I guess you're a little younger than me, huh?"

"What do you mean?" he asked. "You're like, 20 years old, right?"

"Ha!" she laughs. "I'd still be a vulpix!"

"Then how old are you then?" Spark asked, sitting up. For once, he was genuinely curious.

"Around 374." she says.

Spark was taken off guard. "What?" he didn't believe it.

"Yeah." she chuckled. His surprised reaction was entertaining.

"That's not possible!" Spark said. "Even _humans_ only live up to 100!"

She chuckled once more. "My kind can live up to 1000."

Spark took a deep breath, shaking his head, looking at the ground. He didn't believe it, but there was no proof against it.

"I've got to admit…" Spark said, looking back to her with a slight smile. "That's really cool."

The ninetales shrugged. "It's just how it is, I guess."

"Yeah…" Spark said. "But you don't look old, though! You look like you're _really_ young!"

"Well, I am." she said. "Just not by your standards."

Spark put it together. She was young at almost 400?

"How does it work?" Spark questioned. "It doesn't make sense."

The ninetales thought. "I'm not really sure, myself." she said. "It's just how it is."

Spark shook his head slightly. "How could you, like, _stand_ living for that long?" he asked. "I mean, your life is so long, you'd get tired of it, right?"

"I could explain if you want…" she started. "But I sincerely doubt you would understand."

"Oh, really?" Spark said. "You think I wouldn't understand what you say?"

"Not in the slightest." she stated. "You have to remember that I am about 29 times your age."

Spark shook his head. "Go ahead, then. Serenade me."

She chuckled. "Do you even know what 'serenade' means? I'm not singing!"

Spark was confused. "Is _that_ what it means?" He felt stupid.

"Yup." she said. "You basically just told me to sing to you."

Spark chuckled. "That's not exactly what I meant…"

"Well, I can't sing, so I'm glad." she joked.

"Anyways, back on topic." Spark said. "You said I wouldn't understand you?"

"Ah, yes." she refocused on their previous topic. "There is a reason that I don't go crazy, or whatever you say."

"Alright, then what would that reason be?"

'Well…" she started. "You know how you do math, use numbers in numerical order?"

"Yeah…" Spark didn't think this was difficult.

"Well, a lot of the time, your mind things exponentially, such as 1, 3, 9, 21, so on and so forth."

Spark nodded.

"The same principal applies to age. You ever notice how time seems to go faster and faster as you get older? That's because your mind is thinking in that pattern. As you get older, the years you live are shorter and shorter _in comparison_ to what you have already lived; if you have already lived two years, another two years seems like a lot. But if you had lived, say, 500 years, 2 years seems like it isn't anything. That's because your mind thinks exponentially, and so time seems to go quicker, since you have already lived that amount of time so many times."

She sits down. "That's the short version."

Spark nods. "I totally understood that."

She gives him a sly look. "Did you?"

"Nope."

She chuckles. "You'll see soon enough."

Spark nods once again. "But how do you know this?"

"Well, when you've lived around 400 years, you learn a thing or two."

Spark nodded. He really liked this ninetales. He hadn't been in such a good mood for quite a while.

"So," the ninetales started. "What do you do for fun around here?"

"Fun?" Spark repeated. He never really organized things in his mind. He wasn't good at that. "Well, I personally like to go and train with Silver." he said. "But, that's just me. Surely _you_ would be bored of such a thing, being older than my great grandparents, and all."

She slightly tilted her head. "Do you mean that, or are you just afraid I'd kick your butt?"

Spark perked up. "Is that a challenge?"

"Take it how you see fit." the ninetales responded, with a small grin. She hadn't competed in a long time. "You tell me."

"Heh." Spark chuckled. "You don't know me."

She raised an eyebrow. "I know more than you'd think."

"Sure you do." Spark replied.

"Don't believe me?"

"Not at all." Spark slightly believed it, but didn't show it. He was sure she knew a little about him, but basic details, if anything. "Prove it. Tell me something maybe even _I_ wouldn't remember."

"Hmm…" she thought. She had seen Silver's memories already, and tried to think of something pointless that no one else would know.

"Well…" she started. "I know that at one point, you told Silver to make something that would make you remember everything… You told him to put it in a hamburger, and call it the 'remem-burger'." She couldn't help but smile; the thought was rather silly.

Spark thinks. "Oh, yeah. I remember that." he paused. "Well, if he'd actually _made_ it, I would've remembered that!"

The ninetales chuckled. "Well, now you have me around. You don't need to!"

Spark nodded. "Okay, you win. But how did you know?"

"I'm not giving away _my_ secrets!" she said. "There wouldn't be a point to making that little burger-whatsit if I told you!"

"Ha!" Spark said. "As if that was going to happen. That was a _long_ time ago."

The ninetales shook her head. "If you say so…"

Spark jumped down off of the couch, standing in front of her. "Are we going to 'compete', then?"

"Well…" she started, looking to her leg. She was still injured, but she knew it would heal quickly. "My leg is still messed up… but I can still take you."

Spark was surprised. She was going to challenge him, even _with_ a messed up leg?

Spark felt legitimately worried for himself. She meant it, and that could mean that he could be in danger if she was as good at fighting as she said she was.

"Y- you sure?" he asked. He was nervous, knowing that she meant business, but it wasn't in his blood to turn down a battle.

"What do you think?" she said. "Are you scared?"

"What? No!" Spark lied. "Why would I be scared of you?"

"You tell me, scaredy-cat." she teased.

He sighed. "Okay, then. Let's settle it."

The ninetales smiled. "Great." she said. "Let's take this outside."

Spark nodded and led the way out back.

* * *

Silver finished cleaning up after his shower. He put everything away, and dried up any water that had gotten onto the floor.

He left out to the living room that the others were in just a moment ago. He walked in and noticed that neither of them were there.

 _Where could they be?_ he wondered. His eyes scanned the room, not seeing them.

He walked to the window and looked outside. He saw them training together, and didn't know what to think. Sure, it was cool that they weren't trying to kill each other, but the ninetales still needed to heal.

He walked back to the middle of the living room and sat on the couch. He flipped on the TV to catch up with the news.

Nothing really interesting went on. Just weather forecasts and whatnot.

The two came inside a little while later. Spark seemed exhausted while the ninetales was perfectly fine.

"Well, I see how that turned out." Silver said, giving a small grin. "Feel weak yet?"

"Nah." he said. "I do think I've met my match though." he looked to the ninetales. "For now."

"Please." she muttered. They both moved near Silver to see what he was up to.

Spark hopped up onto the sofa while the ninetales simply sat on the floor, fairly content. They both looked to the TV to see what he was watching.

"Nothing really exciting." he said. "Just a few simple news stories have been on today. Other than that, just weather."

"Alright." Spark said. Silver remembered that Spark didn't know that he could understand them. He decided to wait for him to figure it out on his own.

They basically sat there watching the news. At one point, there was a story that wasn't so dull.

It was a story about someone finding a swampert on the side of a street yesterday, badly beaten up. They said that she was currently being takena under care, expecting for her to be there for a while. They described one wound in particular, a knife wound in the left side. Apparently the knife seemed to be hand made, not bought, so it would be difficult to trace to anyone with records of purchase. It was serrated, and was still there when she was brought into care.

"No…" the ninetales said. "No, no no no no no…"

"What's the matter?" Spark turned to her.

"I- I know her…" she stuttered. "I hope she's okay…"

"They said she'd be alright, it'll just take a while." Silver said.

Spark froze. He turned to Silver slowly. He didn't say anything but Silver already knew what he didn't expect.

"Oh, yeah." Silver said. "Remember that thing that I was doing on my laptop?"

Spark didn't move or say anything.

Silver removed the earpiece from his ear and showed him. "It worked. Now I can understand you."

Spark started turning back away from him. _Okay then…_ he thought. He felt strange about it.

"Let's hope she'll make it… Silver, think we could visit?"


	4. Four

_Nothing is more mysterious than the feeling of an unexplained emptiness. The feeling that you know you need, desire something, but you don't know what. It aches deep inside your chest, toying with you, and you hate it, but, deep down, you know you need it. It hurts, it aches, but its deviousness lures you back to it like a drug. Whether it's a feeling for an activity, an object, or someone you love - or even someone you hate - it drives you for more. There is no explanation as to why, and no one most likely will ever find it. We don't know why we feel this way, but what we do know is that we do, and that we always will._

* * *

The swampert winced as the light burned her eyes. She didn't feel ready to face the world again, but as she soon realized that she was coming back into consciousness, it was inevitable, she knew, and yet she fought it.

She felt tired and groggy. She hadn't completely opened her eyes yet, as part of her didn't want her to. She was almost afraid of what might be waiting for her.

As her head started to clear up, she fought to open her eyes. This used an unusually high amount of effort, the task proving difficult.

Once she managed to open her eyes and they adjusted to the light, she was able to observe her surroundings. Her neck stung as she lifted her head, hoping to get an idea of exactly where she was, realizing she seemed to be in some sort of hospital setting. Looking to her left side where her injury lived, she noticed that she was bandaged up, a few cord-like objects connected to her body. Moving slowly, she craned her neck to her right, observing the plain scenery around the simple bed she lied upon. There wasn't much but a small stand holding objects she was unfamiliar with.

Unamused, she set her head back down, letting out a soft huff of air through her nostrils. Staring at the plain ceiling, she reflected on what she could remember of the events between her and her former trainer. She didn't understand how she let him trick her into believing that he would truthfully change his ways. It seemed stupid to her; there was no way that he would change like that simply because of her appearance, and then there was the ninetales. She couldn't believe she thought that she was worth saving for later. It was a sin, abandoning someone who needed attention like that. She wanted another chance, to change what had done. Things needed to be made right. For all she knew, the poor ninetales could be dead, and her old trainer could be out hurting someone else. It put her through pain to think about it.

She closed her eyes once again.

 _I'm the worst. There's nothing I could've screwed up more than I did. I should've done better._

She remained motionless as she continued reflecting upon on what happened. The thoughts brought her nothing but pain, but she couldn't think of anything else.

She let out a sigh before she heard a door squeak open.

She heard someone walk into the room, fueling her curiosity. She slowly lifted her head as she opened her eyes once more, glancing over to whoever it may be.

It was a young, female human, dressed in a simple, white uniform. She seemed to be looking into a closet inside of the room, apparently being the source of the sound she had heard, as she realized that the door to the room was already open. The woman closed the closet door rather quickly before turning in the direction of the swampert, freezing as they made eye contact. They locked eyes for a brief moment as a small smirk grew on the woman's face.

"You're finally awake." she said in a rather light tone. "Great."

She made her way near the foot of the bed. "I hope you're feeling alright. We've been working very hard to keep you alive!"

The swampert said nothing, knowing that it would be pointless to say anything, since she wouldn't be understood.

The woman let out a sigh before moving to the side of the bed. "My name is Kristie. I'm part of the team that made this possible." She held out her hand for a hand shake.

The swampert stayed still for a moment, confused. Handshakes were a human thing, why was she offering _her_ one?

She remained still for a moment more before slowly moving her own arm out to gently grasp her hand with her own, careful not to hurt her.

Kristie moved her hand back once they finished shaking hands, giving a quick, small nod towards the floor.

"You should be healthy fairly soon." said Kristie. "I bet you're hungry, having not eaten, and all. I'll go get you something."

She then turned towards the exit and made her way out. Only a moment later could the swampert hear speech out in the hallway.

"Hey," a male voice was heard before a small pause. "How's it going in there?"

"Oh, you mean the swampert?" Kristie's voice wasn't difficult to make out. "She's awake now. I'm about to fetch some food."

"Cool." the male voice said. "Think it'd be alright if I'd check in? I have a friend that wants to see her."

"I wouldn't…" Kristie said. "She seems rather… antisocial, you know? Not the kind for company, but if you'll wait, I'll be able to ask her for you."

There was another small pause. "O- okay. Cool..."

"Alrighty then."

There was nothing left to hear but footsteps after that.

The swampert set her head down once more, attempting to make sense of how fast everything was happening. How long had she been out for? Where was the ninetales? Was that trainer still on the loose? It bothered her to know that there were so many problems, yet there was nothing she could do but lie there and do nothing about it.

"I can't stand this…" she said softly to herself. "Something needs to be done about this, but… Ugh…"

As she had been living out on her own for a majority of her life, it had become regular for her to speak to herself. It made it easier for her to process her thoughts, eliminating the whole 'sounds-better-in-your-head-than-it-actually-is' sort of thing.

She let out another sigh. "It'll be taken care of…" she mumbled, attempting to comfort herself. "It will…"

"Excuse me" she heard the male voice yet again, but this time from near the doorway. "Are you alright?"

She remained still, feeling as if it wouldn't do her any good to move more than she needed to.

"I'm sorry you aren't feeling well, but I have a friend who wants to see you, I hope you don't mind."

She sighed yet again. "Somebody doesn't seem to know how to listen…" she said to herself.

"I'm a northerner, it's just what I do." she heard the man reply. She froze.

"Coincidence..." she muttered, reassuring herself that he was simply guessing what she was thinking.

"Wouldn't say that, no."

 _No way._

"Achoo."

"Gesundheit."

She quickly lifted her head and looked to the man speaking to her. Seeing him made her think of him less of a man, since he looked very young. He had dark, short hair, and he had nice, light grey, almost silver-colored eyes. "What do you want?" she asked him.

"Simple. I have a friend who wants to see you, but I believe that I've made that clear already."

She thought for a moment. "Who are you?"

"Well…" he started. He leaned against the side of the doorframe. "That's not important, but it _is_ important that you see my friend. Surely it'll make you feel better."

She didn't believe him. She didn't have a reason not to, but she had learned her lesson when it came to believing someone automatically.

"Why should I trust you?" she said.

"You don't need to." he said. "I'll leave that decision to your own accord. If you want me to leave you be and come back when you're well I can."

"I'd appreciate it." she muttered. She just wanted to rest.

"Very well." he said. "I'll come back later."

He started moving out of the doorway when he quickly moved back.

"And this… 'problem'… you were talking about…"

"What about it?" she moaned. She was sick of talking to him already.

"I insist my friend knows about it. They can help you."

"Leave me alone…" she muttered as she set her head down.

"So be it." he said plainly. "Good luck at getting well!"

It was then that he had left.

 _What was that about? Does he have a problem or something?_

She closed her eyes and thought about it. Who was this guy? Who was his friend? She had enough questions on her mind already, but now she was even more confused than before.

She tried to clear her mind. She had way too many questions and problems on her mind and she knew that she couldn't take care of them at that moment.

She then heard footsteps coming down the hallway yet again, almost certain that is was Kristie.

And she was right. Kristie walked into the room, holding a small tray of food.

"Here you go." she said as she came into the room before setting the tray down on the small table next to the bed.

The swampert lifted her head yet again, looking towards Kristie.

"It's there for when you're ready." she said. "If there's anything else you need, give me a holler."

"Thanks." the Swampert said, forgetting that she couldn't understand her.

"You're welcome." she replied.

The Swampert thought about it, coming to the conclusion that she simply had been working at a hospital for a while, growing accustomed to some speech patterns of those like herself. She knew that Kristie couldn't actually understand her, not like that weird guy that showed up a moment ago.

She watched as Kristie left the room, before she looked over to the tray the had left.

 _I AM kind of hungry… maybe I'll have just a little…_

* * *

"I told you, she wants to be left alone. We'll see her when she's doing better."

The ninetales was persistent. She didn't want to wait to see her friend. She was worried about what had happened to the poor swampert.

"Is there anything we _can_ do?" she asked intently.

"Wait." Silver told her. "There will be time."

"But we've been waiting for hours!" she said. "What if she's acting that way because she's worried about me?"

Silver looked at her, an utterly confused expression on his face. "Why would she be worried about you?"

"Don't worry about it." she said. "Just know that it's a possibility, I know how she is."

 _If I remember correctly, at least…_

"Well, if she's not in the mood, she's not in the mood." Silver sat down in one of the lobby chairs. "I'm not the kind of guy to force someone to change their mind like that."

The ninetales let out a sigh. "She's hurt. Physically, yes, but I'm afraid even more so emotionally. That's just how she is. She doesn't show much emotion, but it gets to her. It's like watching someone break down from the inside out. It's one of the saddest things I've ever seen, and I've seen it before."

She set her head down on top of her front paws as she sat there on the floor.

"Way back, nearly… 12 years ago, our trainer used to be a great guy, he really was. He wasn't good at coming up with names, yet refused to not give us any, so he would say that he'd give us names when he thought of good ones, but he never really did, so we remained nameless, so we just call each other by what Pokémon we are. He refused to tell us his own name because of this, but now it seems more like a stunt to get power, but anyways…"

She cleared her throat.

"We didn't ever know why, but our trainer always had a thing for water types. He seemed to enjoy training them the most, and he was good at it. He liked to get the ones that trainers like to call 'starters'. Swampert was the first, Feraligatr was the second. I came in after those two to help with balance apparently, but I honestly don't get how the team still worked, but, anyways, he raised both of them from the start, from mudkip and totodile. It was that time about 12 years ago that he got the third, Froakie. Since he was so much younger than the other two, they would help him train, and did well at it. They both took him under their wings, and quickly grew attached to him. They often found themselves taking turns every few days and bringing him out with just one of them and having one on one time with him, they loved him so much. But it was one day that Swampert took him out on their own like that that changed everything…"

Spark and Silver were both looking at the ground beneath them, but were listening intently.

The ninetales let out a sigh before continuing. "I don't remember that much, but I remember that… I… uh…"

She paused once again. "I'm sorry, it's still kind of hard, even for me…"

They both nodded in acknowledgement.

"Well, Swampert and Froakie both went out together on a day in the summer. It was nice and hot, and it felt nice to be outside, or, to me, at least... Well, they were out for an unusually long time, as we all took note, and at one point we began to worry. It had been a few hours before Swampert returned, and she looked absolutely miserable. The first and only thing she said to us was 'Froakie's dead.' It sent chills through all of us, and nothing was said between us for a week, I swear. It deeply affected all of us, but we all know it got to Swampert more than anyone else."

They were all silent.

"It was just… the look in her eyes, when she first showed up… as long as I've lived, I've never seen someone as miserable and distressed as that. I still feel bad for her, no one should ever have to go through that, you know?"

"Sometimes, there's nothing you can really do." Silver said. "Everyone mourns loss in their own way."

"The reason she left was because our trainer was talking about it…"

"Wait, what?" Silver said.

"He brought it up and started blaming her for it, it was too much for her to handle. She out right _left._ "

"Why would he do that, though?" Silver insisted. "That's just wrong."  
"Just like you said, everyone mourns loss in their own way."

Silver was still for a moment before slowly nodding. Spark stayed quiet, seemingly tired.

"Just the other day he came after me for some reason and pulled out a gun. He shot at me and hit my leg, and I ran for it. I saw her as I ran, and I knew, deep down, she wasn't going to let him get away with it."

Her eyes looked down towards the floor. "That's all I know..."

Silver seemed to be in thought. "Do you think…"

The ninetales looked up to him.

"Do you think that's how she was hurt?" he asked. "Do you think he stabbed her?"

"What reason would he have?" she objected. "He knows how dangerous he can be with them. He refuses to use them against anyone."

Silver slowly nodded in understanding. "Was anyone else there?"

"No."

"Well, alright…" Silver admittedly felt that he, too, was eager to talk to this swampert again. He felt that this new information would help him communicate with her better.

Silence filled the air.

* * *

It had grown dark outside, but the pitiable swampert couldn't find it in her to rest. She almost felt like there was no point; she knew her mind wouldn't let her free from the stress, even in her sleep. She wanted an escape, but was unable to find one. She felt miserable, simply lying on the plain white mattress, her body motionless save the rise and fall of her chest from her slow, rhythmic breathing. She tried her best to see the positives, how she was able to have eaten, and was given shelter and care, but felt that she would rather give said things in opposition to receiving them.

Staring at the ceiling, she felt nothing but melancholy. She was cornered. As bad as she wanted to be free of the feeling, it refused to loosen its grasp. Misery consumed her every thought. It scared her, the idea of her being overpowered.

As the light had been shut off moments before, her eyes had easily adjusted to the darkness.

Reflecting on the events on her mind, her mind led her to the man that had visited earlier, the one who had understood her speech. Staying on the thought, she felt a spark of hope as she realized that he could be her saving grace, assuming he was telling the truth. She didn't want to trust him, but she was desperate. He probably knew that, though… But he might be able to help…

The thoughts clashed against each other, as she was unable to decide what was right.

Searching for a legitimate reason to choose one over the other, she heard footsteps coming towards the room again, as this was something she had quickly learned to grow accustomed to. An unrecognizable man entered the room. Taking a small glance at him, she noticed that he was wearing slightly different clothes than the nurses did, but she could tell by the basic white color scheme that he worked at the facility. He looked slightly different than the others, but she didn't take much note of it.

"Hello there, I'm Dr. Furst, how are you doing?" the man said. His accent resembled German heritage, as she recognized it.

She remained still, watching the ceiling.

"I'm only in here to check on you. Feeling any pain, need anything, have any questions?" the doctor asked her. "Don't be afraid to tell me."

She sighed. "How long am I going to be here?" she said it almost as a demand than a question.

"If we're lucky, we'll be able to get you out tomorrow, but we'll have to make sure there aren't any problems if we decide to."

She merely dismissed the fact that he, too, could understand her speech. She didn't know if he was trained or if he was magic or what, but she just didn't care at this point.

"Is there any way I'll be getting out tonight?"

"Probably not." he answered. "But if we're lucky enough, you just might. You've been healing remarkably well, after all."

She said nothing. They were quiet for a moment as she considered asking for him to get the man from earlier. She thought on it, but couldn't decide.

"Anything else you need?" he asked.

She was quiet for a moment more. "Well…"

"Go ahead." he said. "You're fine."

"There's this guy that came by earlier… dark hair, silver eyes… if you could get him for me, I'd appreciate it."

He was still, his eyes moving to the ceiling, slightly to the right, as he seemed to be in thought. "Yeah, sure." he said once he assured he knew who she was talking about. He turned around and left the room.

Motionless, she waited. It took but a few minutes for the man she was looking for to appear.

"Need something?" she heard the unmistakable voice from the doorway once again.

"Who was this… _friend…_ you were talking about?" she stated.

"Ah," he said. "You want to see them?"

 _I better not regret this_.

"Yeah, why not?" she muttered almost sarcastically. She tried her best to reassure herself that this was the only option she had.

He was motionless, trying to speak, but nothing came out. He appeared utterly surprised.

"Go get them before I change my mind." she said. She didn't want to deal with him.

He was still for only a moment more before he nodded with a thumbs up with both of his hands before moving out of the room.

Waiting in suspense, the swampert felt that she had made a wrong move yet again. She kept doubting herself, feeling that every move she made was wrong.

Waiting for the sound of another human's footsteps, it never came. She soon found herself listening to a soft clicking noise, almost like paws on the tile floor. She did nothing but listen, her head still rested on the small pillow, watching the ceiling. She didn't know what to think of the paw sounds. One could argue that they had a different type of shoes, but the pattern told her that whoever it may be was quadrupedal.

As the noise's volume grew, so did her curiosity. She couldn't think of who - or _what_ \- it could be.

As the sound reached just outside the door the sound stopped. She listened as she heard nothing for a moment.

"Okay…" she heard a soft voice. She felt that the voice was familiar, but she couldn't think of why.

She heard a few more paw steps as whoever it was had entered the room.

"Hey, Swampert." she knew the voice. "Long time, no see."

She slowly lifted her head, her eyes leading to the voice's host. She froze in shock as she immediately recognized who it was.

"Ninetales-" she said, practically choking on her words. She felt a rush of emotion flow through her, but she couldn't do so much as begin to fathom how any of this made sense. "It's you?"

"Very much so." the ninetales said back with a smile. "Good to see you."

The swampert tried to speak, but nothing came out but small noises. She was admittedly happy to see her old friend.

"How did you-? Who was-? Where did you-?" she struggled to speak properly.

"It's hard to explain, just… try and calm yourself down." she said. "You need to relax, Silver simply agreed that it'd be good for me to come see you. It was my idea to come here, after all."

"Who is…" the swampert started before realizing that Silver was the name of the man that had come before.

"Again, it's hard to explain." the ninetales told her. "Just try to clear your mind."

The swampert set her head back down, looking to the ceiling. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. She took in the fact that the ninetales was still alive, holding back tears as the ninetales moved towards the side of the bed and jumped up on her hind legs, propping herself up on the side of the mattress with her front legs.

Her head tilted slightly to the side as she watched the swampert. "You okay?" the ninetales asked.

"Yeah." she muttered after sniffling. Her eyes started to well up. She fought herself to make sure she didn't start crying, but seeing her made her emotional. She let out a small cough before sniffling once again.

"I'm sorry." she muttered.

"No, it's okay, you're fine." the ninetales didn't know what to think. The swampert wasn't the one to cry. She had only seen it from her once before, but never out of happiness. It was a drastic change of pace, but it wasn't exactly a bad change.

The swampert turned to the ninetales. "I'm glad you're okay." she stated assertively as a few tears ran down her face.

"Me? I was worried about _you!_ " she chuckled. The swampert said nothing, her only acknowledgement being a small smile.

"I'm such a mess…" the swampert said. "Why am I crying?"

"Don't worry about it, it's okay to cry." the ninetales reassured her. "We all have those moments."

"I know, it's just…" she cleared her throat. "I hate crying, you know that."

"Don't worry, I know." she told her friend. "I don't either, trust me."

The swampert grunted in inconvenience as she wiped her eyes. She didn't mind water at all, she just didn't like the tears.

"There's a box of tissues on the table there." the ninetales told her, nodding her head towards the table on the other side of the bed.

The swampert looked and saw the box before grabbing a tissue and using it respectively. "Thanks…" she muttered as she wiped her eyes.

"You're _fine_." the ninetales chuckled, reassuring her once again.

The swampert looked to her after throwing the tissue away in a trashcan she found underneath the table.

"So what happened?" the swampert asked. "What was he after you for?"

"Hmm?" the ninetales took a moment to recall what she was speaking of, but quickly caught on. "Oh… I… don't know… I guess he was mad."

The swampert wasn't happy with the answer she was given and wanted more information. "What for? Something happen?"

"No, it's just…" she was quiet for a moment. "I guess he was thinking about you, is all."

The swampert shook her head as she knew that if he missed her, he wouldn't have pulled what he did. "That's not true, I know that."

"It's all I could think of." the ninetales replied. "He really did miss you."

"Look." the swampert lifted her left arm and pointed to her side where her wound lived. " _He_ did that to me. _He_ did that. If he really, _truly_ missed me, would he really do that?"

"I couldn't tell you." the ninetales was softly shaking her head, her eyes looking downward. "Have you ever been able to tell what goes through his head before?"

The swampert said nothing, as everything she was told was true. She let out a soft sigh.

"Let's just… change the topic." the ninetales seemed uncomfortable with the conversation. "That guy Silver helped me out. He's pretty nice."

"Okay…" the swampert didn't know what to say. "He seems annoying to me."

The ninetales looked to her. "Sorry you see him that way… he must have bothered you because of me. I was really desperate to be able to talk to you, I'm sorry."

"You're fine, it's just… I should have listened, but…" the swampert didn't know how to start. "I just feel that I can't really trust anyone anymore."

"You can trust _me_." the ninetales said.

"I know." she responded. "That's why I'm… glad to see you."

The ninetales nodded. "Well, you can trust me when I say you can trust Silver."

They were both quiet. The swampert didn't want to accept Silver as trustworthy, but as the ninetales said, it was her fault that he seemed annoying to her. She simply decided that she would see how things would play out.

"So why'd you want to see me so bad?" the swampert said it without really thinking about it. She didn't mean to ask, it just came out.

"How could I not?" the response came quickly. "You're the best friend I've ever had."

The swampert took in the answer. Despite her efforts, she started getting emotional again. She was her _best friend?_

The swampert did nothing but nod. "Thank you…" she muttered before turning to look at the ninetales. "I… I needed that…"

The ninetales nodded with a smirk. "You deserved it, I suppose."

The swampert let out a soft chuckle. She didn't know what to say.

"So." the ninetales started. "What do you say… you come with us?"

The swampert perked up. "What?"

"You'll be better off with us, you know." the ninetales explained.

She simply couldn't decide. Should she? What other choice did she have? She'd be with the ninetales, after all. She didn't want to accept someone else's help, but she just might have to. The fact that it was the ninetales asking her specifically made it hard to say no.

"Sure." she said, feeling almost as if she would regret it yet again.

The ninetales was surprised by her quick acceptance. She was fixing on saying something about it, but she stopped herself, as she knew it could lead to her changing her mind. She knew how she was.

"Cool." she muttered, thinking about how it was much easier to convince her than she thought. All she had to do now was to convince Silver.

"Know when you'll be good to go?" the ninetales was excited to have the swampert join them.

"The doctor came in earlier." she said. "Said I should be out tomorrow, tonight if we're lucky…"

The ninetales was happy to hear this. "Alright." she said. "I'm gonna be back."

"M'kay…" the swampert muttered, rather confused with her suddenly leaving. "You'll be back right?"

"Of course!" the ninetales soon left the room, leaving the swampert alone once again, letting he reflect on her thoughts more.

* * *

"Silver!"

The teenager lifted his head as he saw the ninetales coming towards him.

"I've gotten her to open up." she said. "She'll be nicer to you."

Silver was still for a moment. "Cool!"

"Also," she said. "Would you be okay if she came with us? You know, when she's let out of here?"

Silver was still. "Huh?"

"Sudden, I know…" she said. "But would it be okay? I asked her and she said she was okay with it."

Silver was still confused. "You asked her _what,_ now?"

"Well?" she said. " _Please?_ "

Silver sighed. "I'll think about it."

The ninetales calmed herself down rather quickly. "Okay."

Silver stood up, Spark and the ninetales both watching.

"Well." he said. "Shall we?"

The ninetales stepped back a little. "Sure. You up to come, Spark?"

Spark sat up and stretched. "Sure…" he muttered, before hopping off of the chair he was on.

The three started making their way out of the lobby.


	5. Five

Nothing was heard but the soft hum of car tires against the pavement alongside the gentle singing of speakers along to the tune of Five for Fighting's "Easy Tonight".

The group was quiet as Silver drove the vehicle to their home, him being moderately content as they had added another member to their team.

Spark was fast asleep in the passenger side seat beside Silver as the ninetales and the swampert were both looking out their windows as they both sat in the seats in the back.

The ride was mostly uneventful, as no one seemed to feel like speaking, as they either had nothing on their mind or were too tired.

Silver listened to the lyrics to the song playing on his radio as he drove down the freeway road.

 _"Shotgun fire, anybody home? I got two dimes in the telephone, alright. It's not easy tonight."_

The music brought him a faint sense of nostalgia as it was a song he heard when he was much younger. His father used to love the song.

They all remained quiet for a few moments.

"So…" Silver heard from the backseat. "Your name is _Silver,_ right?"

He nodded. "Indeed, it is."

The backseat was quiet for a moment more. "Your parents named you Silver because of your eyes, didn't they?"

Silver didn't expect the question, but it made him think. He had never thought about it before.

"I… don't know…" he said, thinking. "That's a good question."

"You could ask them, right?"

Silver was quiet as he heard a whispering in the backseat before hearing an "Oh".

"I'm sorry." he heard. "I didn't know."

Silver smirked. "You're fine. Happens to everyone every now and then."

"I guess…" it was quiet once again.

Silver let out a small sigh. He was kind of glad that the swampert was trying to open up to him. He thought it was rather interesting, as she seemed rather introverted.

"This is a good car, huh?" the swampert then asked him rather quietly.

Silver nodded, turning his head slightly over his right shoulder. "It is."

"What was it called, again?" she asked him.

Silver wasn't sure why she had a sudden interest in his vehicle, but he wasn't one to complain.

"It's a 1992 Lotus Opel Omega." he said. "LHD Version." He noticed the ninetales nodding in agreement out of the corner of his eye.

The swampert seemed almost confused. "That's… special?"

"It is…" the ninetales joined in the conversation. "Stroked engine, twin Garrett turbochargers, ZR-1 Corvette transmission... Only 630 in the world."

Silver was surprised at the ninetales' knowledge of the topic. "How'd you know that?" he asked.

"I know a few things…" was the response he was given.

Silver kept his eyes on the road, not letting himself get distracted.

"How'd you get it?" the swampert was apparently curious about it.

"A friend of mine." he said. "It was a gift, I think it was… two years ago? I can't remember when it was, I just remember that it was a gift."

"He got rid of it because it's not street legal." the ninetales piped in. "It'll be a couple of years until it is."

Silver felt slightly annoyed with the ninetales getting in is head, as he knew that's what she was doing. He decided to let it slide, as he would take care of it later.

"No one will recognize it." Silver said. "It looks like a normal sedan."

"No kidding…" the swampert muttered. "Could've fooled me…"

"It'll be legal in 2017." Silver said. "It'll be legal once it's 25 years old. That's the law."

They turned onto an exit ramp, approaching a brighter, more occupied area of town.

"If you guys are hungry, and can stop somewhere real quick." Silver said.

Spark woke up as Silver spoke, sitting up slowly, stretching.

"I'm up for _food…_ " he yawned.

"Quite literally, at that." Silver retorted. "Anyone else?"

"I think I'm fine." the ninetales said. Silver was about to say something before the swampert interrupted him.

"She doesn't eat often, you shouldn't worry about it."

Silver stopped himself from arguing. "Okay. It's just that I haven't seen her eat _yet._ "

"It's nothing unusual." the swampert reassured him.

"So what about you?" Silver asked her. "You hungry?"

"Already ate." she said rather lowly. "I'll be fine."

Silver paused for a moment. "That's okay, if you're hungry, you're hungry. You have to remember that this is a teenager that you're talking to."

The swampert seemed tempted. " _Sure, I guess so…_ "

* * *

They were soon back on the road after making a small stop for food. They all seemed rather content.

Spark didn't seem as tired as earlier, as he was no longer trying to sleep. The nap seemingly helped him regain his energy.

Making their way to Silver's house, they soon entered a small, winding road, surrounded by trees.

As they made their way along, a harsh light was visible through the trees ahead of them, another driver supposedly coming along.

Silver, knowing what to do without any problems, kept his vehicle to his side of the road to avoid any problems.

As the opposing vehicle approached, they drove across a rather large, high bridge.

"Silver." the ninetales said rather assertively from the backseat. "That driver isn't slowing down."

Silver watched ahead of him as he realized that she was right. He felt his stomach lurch as he realized that they could be in trouble. He didn't know what to do, but he was ready to do whatever he could to keep the others safe.

The other car approached quickly as they were still on the bridge. Silver gripped the steering wheel rather tightly as he braced himself to make sure they got out okay.

He watched the car drive onto the other side of the bridge, the driver apparently not knowing what side of the road they were supposed to be on.

The car approached at an accelerating speed. Silver watched as he was ready to make his move.

"Brace yourselves guys, this is gonna get a little messy." he said.

The vehicle came directly at them as Silver gripped and pulled his handbrake while turning to the right, causing the car in the oncoming lane to hit their own vehicle on the driver-side door. Silver felt his head pound into the window before the airbags deployed, the vehicle being sent in the opposite direction from the one they were heading. The car spun a few times before grinding against the wall on the other side of the bridge in reverse. The back of the car hopped up and crushed a weak spot in the railing before the vehicle stopped moving, the rear wheels hanging off of the bridge.

Grasping his head with one hand, Silver struggled to quickly unfasten the seatbelt around him. "You guys okay?" he grunted rather loudly.

He heard each of them respond, but wasn't able to make out any of their words. He wasn't able to do much of anything other than grasp his head, struggling to get over the pain he was dealing with.

"Get the door the luxray's at, I'll help Silver." the swampert told the ninetales. She nodded in response as both of them tried their best to get out as quickly as possible.

They both made it out of the vehicle at about the same time, both moving to the front doors. The ninetales didn't have much trouble getting Spark out as he was able to on his own. The swampert was able to open the door, but getting Silver out was another story. She tried her best to help him out, but he was partially ensnared with the seatbelt, and the fit through the door wasn't working.

"Ninetales!" she shouted, noticing that she had already finished her job. "A little help!"

The ninetales started making her way around the vehicle as they all froze, a loud creaking noise coming from the vehicle. They watched as the vehicle started slowly sliding backwards, making its way off the bridge.

"We can't have this!" the swampert shouted. The ninetales quickly made it to her side, followed by Spark.

"We'll take care of him, keep the car on the bridge!" Spark ordered the swampert.

The swampert backed up to let the other two through without question. She moved her way to the front of the car, grabbing the most stable thing she could find under the front bumper, pulling it as hard as she could away from the edge of the bridge. She struggled, as her left side wouldn't let her forget about her previous injury. She hissed at the pain, refusing to let up.

"I'll get in and lift him from his left, you help pull him out." Spark said, climbing back in the car.

"If this thing falls, you're going down with it, you know!" the ninetales yelled to him.

"Better me than him!" Spark said back before gripping the young trainer's shirt in his jaws.

The ninetales calmed herself down. "Right." she acknowledged before starting to get the seatbelt off of him.

The swampert grunted as she pulled the vehicle forward as much as she could, but despite her efforts, the car slowly but surely made its way off the bridge.

"You guys better _hurry the hell up!_ " she demanded. She wasn't doing as well as the others.

"We're trying!" the ninetales shouted. They had gotten him only partially out of the vehicle, but it wasn't enough.

The swampert grunted once more, before coming up with an idea.

"Get away from him!" she shouted.

" _What!?_ " Spark shouted.

"Don't question me! If you want him to live, do as I say!"

The ninetales backed up. "Listen to her!" she shouted to Spark. She knew that she was going to do something. "Just do it!"

Spark was frozen for a moment more before he decided to get out of the vehicle.

"Stand back!" the swampert shouted, and they soon did so.

She closed her eyes and calmed herself down.

 _You guys can thank me later._

In one swift movement, she gave the car one last hard tug before running to the driver-side door. As the car started accelerating backwards, she moved around the door, grabbing him and picking him up, being forced to move to the edge of the bridge as she did so. As soon as she was able to retrieve him from the car, she was forced to jump off of the bridge, along with the car, Silver in her arms.

Both Spark and the ninetales were both forced to watch in shock as they watched their best friends fall off of the bridge. Neither of them said a word.

They both quickly moved to the same end of the bridge as the debris fell, watching as the falling car was visible before the impact was audible.

"You… owe me… for that…" the swampert was lying on her back, holding Silver, as they had just hit the ground.

Barely conscious, Silver looked up to her. He was barely able to do this, as he was very weak.

"Wh- why…?" Silver mumbled. "Why did you…?"

The swampert made eye contact with him, not any easier of a task for her. "How could I not…?"

Silver's neck was quickly becoming weak. "Th- thank… thank you…"

She set a hand on top of his head as he set his head back down on top of her before she set her own head down herself. She let out a soft sigh. As much as she hurt, she felt almost… at peace, about it all, doing such a thing. It felt nice.

* * *

"Wh... Wh… what do we do?" Spark wasn't one to freak out, but he couldn't think of any logical action to take.

The ninetales said nothing, as she was intent on looking on to what was now a wreck at the bottom of the drop from the bridge.

"A- Are they… _dead?_ " Spark ranted.

" _Shh._ "

Spark froze. "Did you just _shush_ me?"

"Be quiet." she ordered.

"Look, I don't know who you think you are-"

"Shut up!" she didn't seem to be one to mess with, and Spark knew that. He did so.

The ninetales continued staring below them, focused on whatever she was doing. Spark was curious as to what, but he didn't want to be attacked.

She closed her eyes and sighed in relief.

"What is it?" Spark asked rather calmly. Part of him was scared he was going to set her off.

She looked to him. "They're alive."

Spark froze. "Huh?"

She shook her head. "I can read their signals. They're alive."

Spark still wasn't following, and she knew that. "J- just don't worry about it. They're okay, that's all you need to know."

Spark slowly nodded, partially skeptical about what he was told, as he didn't understand a single thing she did.

"They need help, just… Follow me." she looked around and quickly found a slope downward just off the end of the bridge. They both made their way to it.

* * *

The swampert still hadn't let go of Silver. She didn't want to move him, since she knew he was in pain, but she also knew that she needed to help herself. She had decided over and over again that she would put Silver ahead of herself, but it still bothered her.

She brushed her hand softly along the top of his head as she had done for a little while now, careful she didn't hurt him.

"You okay?" she muttered to him.

The only response she was given was a soft "Mm-hmm". She felt sorry for him, knowing that his intentions were to help her, and she knew that he most definitely didn't want something like this to happen.

She knew that they were going to need help, but she also knew that they wouldn't find help anywhere around here. She felt it would be best to start moving at some point, for if they didn't, the damage could get worse.

"Would you be okay with moving?" she asked him.

He was quiet. "Not really…"

"Well…" she said. "We're gonna have to."

She slowly moved her hand off of his head so she could prop herself up. "I'm sorry." she said. "It's not gonna last for long, I promise."

"Do what you gotta do…" he responded weakly. "Also…"

She listened to him.

"If I start falling asleep… don't let me, okay?"

"Got it."

She gently moved him off of her and onto the ground so she could get on her feet. He didn't seem to take it harshly.

 _This might be easier than I thought._

She carefully rolled herself over onto her stomach before attempting to get on her feet. Her legs seemed to not want to cooperate, as this was very difficult.

 _Okay, maybe not. But, sometimes, you've gotta do what you've gotta do._

She took a moment to gain her balance, making sure her legs weren't going to give up on her.

Maintaining her balance, she carefully reached and grabbed Silver, eventually managing to get him on her back.

"You're a lot more comfortable than the ground…" he mumbled.

"Oh… kay…?" she said in question. She figured a few nuts and bolts in his head were knocked loose.

"You're _soft…_ " he mumbled.

"Don't embarrass yourself." she stated, before attempting to make her way to the nearest even slope. This proved difficult, as not only her legs, but her back was also stressed. Having a human larger than herself on her didn't exactly help.

They made their way past the wreckage of what used to be Silver's rare car.

 _Only 629 left, now… Man, Silver's gonna be_ _ **pissed**_ _when he realizes that he doesn't have that car anymore…_

As they passed by it, she could faintly hear the radio still playing, miraculously. She didn't recognize the song, but she could hear the words rather clearly.

 _"One… twenty-one guns… lay down your arms, give up the fight…"_

She shook her head as she heard it.

 _Don't need any motivation for that, thanks!_

As she carried the teenager near the hill, she watched as both Spark and the ninetales made their way down the it rather quickly.

"You guys okay?" Spark was audible.

"Yeah, better than ever." the swampert said sarcastically. "Feeling _great._ "

"Good to see you're still alive." the ninetales said, approaching them rather quickly, right behind Spark.

The ninetales was the first to notice Silver on her back.

"That can't be comfortable…" she remarked.

"Not for me, at least…" the swampert said. She hadn't stopped moving up the hill, as she simply wanted it over with.

"Is he okay?" Spark asked.

Silver lifted an arm and pointed to Spark. "You're pretty…"

Spark took a step back, utterly confused. "Guess not…"

"He's a little wacky right now, we need to get some help." she said to the luxray.

"Haven't seen that happen before…" the ninetales said. "What's wrong with him?"

"Let me throw a boulder at your head and see how you feel." the swampert growled. "Quit asking questions, you two. Save it for later."

They were both quiet for a moment. "Very well." the ninetales said before they all made their way up the hill.

Making it to the top, they made their way to the side of the road. They stopped there to let the swampert take a break. They were all there for but a moment as they saw a car come quickly from the other side of the bridge towards them, dodging the debris from the wreck flawlessly. The car skidded to a halt next to them, the tires screeching as the car turned around on a pivot, the driver-side door of the vehicle facing them. The window was down.

"I saw everything." a voice said from in the car. "Get in."

The swampert recognized the voice without a problem.

"Kristie?" the swampert didn't understand why she showed up, but she didn't question it. She got in the back of the car rather quickly, followed by the ninetales, Spark getting in the front seat on the passenger side.

Once they all got in the car, Kristie let down on the accelerator steadily, understanding that they needed attention, but also knowing that she didn't want them any more hurt then they were.

"Thank you, Kristie." Spark said. "Those two _really_ need attention."

Kristie didn't respond as she didn't understand them. She kept her eyes on the road intently.

"How do you two know her?" the ninetales asked. The question had only come up in her head, but she had to know.

"She's a neighbor." Spark replied. "We've known her for a while."

"And she was a nurse at the hospital for me." the swampert answered her side of the question. "I don't know anything about her, though."

The ninetales nodded. It must have been a detail she missed when she was looking through Silver's head the day before.

Spark turned to look to the backseat. "Hey, uh…" he couldn't think of what to call the swampert.

"What?" she responded, knowing that he was talking to her.

"See that earpiece in Silver's ear?" Silver was now between the two in the back.

She looked, and, indeed, saw the earpiece. "What of it?"

"Give it to me."

Hesitantly, the swampert decided to keep it simple and do so.

Taking the earpiece, Spark turned to Kristie, tapping her on the shoulder.

Glancing to and from him a couple times, she noticed what he was holding.

"What do you want me to do with that?"

Spark pawed her ear and she seemed to get the memo.

She thought it was silly, but she did so anyways. She took the earpiece and put it in her ear after wiping it off.

"That's better." Spark said, catching Kristie's attention.

"Wait, the earpiece lets me-"

" _Yes._ " the ninetales interrupted her. The swampert glared at her for being rude, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Okay" Kristie said enthusiastically. "That's neat!"

"Alright, well, Silver and, uh…" Spark still didn't know what kind of Pokémon the swampert was.

"The swampert?" Kristie suggested.

"Uh, yeah… sure…" he said. "Well, they need attention."

Kristie gave him a playful glare before looking back to the road. "I know, don't worry about that. My friends at the medical center and I'll take care of it."

Spark nodded. "Alright."

* * *

"Where am I…?" the words spilled out of his mouth before he realized he was speaking.

"You're in the hospital again." he heard an answer. "Except now, you're the patient, and I'm the one visiting you. Funny how that works, huh?"

Silver sat up in the bed he was sitting in, his vision only starting to clear up. In front of him he saw no one but the swampert.

"And if you ever call me 'soft' again, you won't be able to feel what 'soft' is anymore. Got it?"

Silver had no idea where the sudden remark came from. "Huh?"

"Glad to get that cleared up." said the swampert. "How you feeling?"

Silver took in the question. His mind seemed to want to take longer than normal to operate. "Fine, I guess. You?"

She chuckled. "I'm not the one acting all loopy, am I?"

"I'm not, either…" Silver said, looking around. "Why am I here?"

The swampert made eye contact with him as he looked back towards her. "You remember what happened, right?"

He thought. "For the most part…" he said. "Nothing about calling you 'soft', or whatever it was you said…"

"Good." she said. "You wouldn't want to remember that, anyways."

Silver let out a small sigh. He was almost afraid of the thought of the swampert getting mad at him, as he knew she was stronger than him by just looking at her. Not only that, but he had also done his fair share of research.

Silver froze as he watched the swampert jump up onto the bed next to him. There was plenty of room for her, sure, but it seemed kind of weird.

"You have room for me, right?" she asked legitimately.

He felt uncomfortable with the sudden change of pace. "I… I _guess…_? I don't know, is-"

"Thanks." she interrupted him, making her way beside his legs, almost curling herself up like a cat. "So… can you guess how long you've been out for?"

Silver looked at her incredulously. "I- I don't know…"

She held up 2 of her three fingers on a hand.

"Two… days?" Silver found it hard difficult to keep up with how fast she was changing the subject.

"Try _weeks._ " the swampert said. The thought blew his mind.

"And while you were out in your little hoo-ha land, or whatever." she started. "Ninetales told me just about everything about you."

Silver didn't like where the conversation was going. "O- okay…? And…?"

"And she told me what you were dreamin' about when you were out, too."

Silver definitely didn't like hearing that either, but realized that he didn't remember having any dreams. "I never had any dreams…"

"Ah." she corrected him. "You don't _remember_ having any dreams."

Silver was uncomfortable. They were both quiet for a moment.

"You know they say that you can sometimes see the future when you sleep?" the swampert said out of nowhere.

"No…" Silver wasn't following anything she was saying. He was starting to feel creeped out.

"Well…" she started slowly crawling up over him. "They do."

She moved over him and stopped when her face was near his. "I like what she told me, too."

Silver's face went pale as he became nervous. He didn't know this Pokémon very much, and now she was practically sitting on top of him, getting in his face.

"Now, how _I_ see it, there's a reason you don't remember dreams like that…"

Silver didn't know what to say, but even if he did he wouldn't be able to have the courage to speak with the two large, orange eyes looking into his the way they were.

"But, just know that there's a _reason_ for everything that's happening." she said. "There are things you'll do that no one else can."

Silver almost understood what she was saying, but couldn't help but feel like getting sick from how nervous he was. He almost felt violated.

"W- wh- wh- why are you… _on_ me…?" he stuttered.

She let out a small chuckle. "Why are you so _nervous_?" she said, mocking him in a rather playful manner.

He said nothing.

"Sorry, but that's something you're gonna have to get over. If _that's_ all it takes for you to turn pale, you have a lot of work to do."

"O- okay…?" Silver didn't really get the point. He wanted her off of him. "Would you mind, giving me some space…?"

She stretched her neck by rotating her head. She decided to have a little fun with the scenario. "Why… yes. Yes, I would mind."

She arched her back to stretch it. "As a matter of fact, I'm not going anywhere."

Silver didn't know what to think as he felt her set her weight down on top of him all at once. He freaked out in his head.

Unbeknownst to Silver, all she wanted was for Silver to tell her to get off of him. She never actually knew of any kind of dreams or anything, but what she did know was that if he was going to be a trainer, he would have to learn to become a little more assertive. She decided that she was going to wait until he did so.

Silver lied there, not only nervous but confused with the situation. They get in a car wreck, he's in a coma for two weeks, and he wakes up to the swampert that he _barely knows_ lying on top of him, making him nervous for Arceus knows why.

 _What a life I have…_

All he knew is that it seemed that he wouldn't have much of a problem befriending the swampert once she got off of him.

 _If she ever does…_

* * *

"…and then I said, 'that should totally be a thing'!"

"Ha!" the ninetales responded to Spark. "Well, at least that clears up how you came up with _that_."

"Yeah…" Spark said. "We used to act really stupid back then."

"Oh, _back then_ , I see."

Spark shook his head. "Where's that, uh…"

"S _wampert_." the ninetales exaggerated. "Remember it!"

"Right, sorry! Sorry…" he returned to his original thought. "Where'd she go?"

The ninetales recalled quickly. "She went to check on Silver."

" _Again?_ " Spark groaned. "How often is she going to check on him?"

"You have to remember, she took the news of him being in a coma _very_ harshly."

"I still don't get why, though…" Spark said. "I'm the one that should take it the hardest, aren't I? I mean, I've known him at least a _little_ longer than two weeks, don't you think?"

"She's weird." the ninetales assured him. "She looks and acts tough and all, but she's actually very emotional. It's strange."

Spark let out a half-hearted laugh. "No kidding…"

"It is what it is." she said.

Spark stood up. "She's been gone for a while. I'm gonna go check on her."

The ninetales got up as well. "Allow me." she said. "You can stay here."

Spark sat back down. "If you must."

At that, the ninetales headed down the hallway on her way to the room Silver was in. She made her way to the doorway rather slowly before looking in to the last thing she thought she would see. Curiosity and confusion filled her thoughts as she saw the swampert lying on top of Silver, almost as if she was asleep. She slowly backed away from the doorway, not knowing what to think.

 _What… was… that…?_

She tried her best to dismiss what she saw and let it be, but she couldn't. It was straight up weird.

She moved back to the doorway and made her way into the room. The swampert apparently heard her, turning her head to look at her.

"Hello~" she chuckled. Hearing her with such a happy tone of voice almost worried the ninetales, not sure of what to think of the situation.

"He's finally awake." the swampert told her, answering almost every question she had.

 _It would make sense why she's so happy… and why she's been gone for so long… but…_

"Why are you on top of Silver?" she asked in the nicest, least assertive tone she could muster.

"Hmm?" the swampert replied. "Oh… no reason…"

"Help-" she heard Silver mutter before the swampert playfully covered his mouth with her hand.

The ninetales didn't understand what was going on. She felt like leaving would do her the most justice.

"Should I go, or-"

"There's nothing wrong with being alone with Silver, is there?"

"No, not at a-"

" _Great._ "

With that, the swampert turned back to the nervous teenager, looking him in the eyes once again.

 _Break._ She thought. _Break. Just break. Break. Break. Break!_

This went on for nearly a solid two hours before Silver truly started to have enough.

"This isn't funny, you know." he said. He seemed far less nervous than before.

She said nothing, simply staring him down as she had been the whole time.

"You'll have to get off of me at some point."

The swampert was excited, hoping that he was about to break at last.

Silver let out an angry sigh. They were quiet for only a moment more.

"Just get off of me already." Silver said rather softly.

The swampert tilted her head to the left, her eyes looking up and to the right, before looking back to him. "What was that?"

"Get off of me." he repeated.

"Can't hear you!" she teased.

Silver was fed up. "I said…"

The swampert waited for what she wanted to hear.

"GET OFF!" Silver shoved her away from him, catching her by surprise. She fell backwards, sliding right off the end of the bed, making a small thud noise.

Silver, realizing what he had done, shuddered, realizing what she could - and possibly _would_ \- do to him.

She soon jumped back up onto the end of the bed, Silver almost shaking in fear at her reappearance.

"Silver…" she said in a low voice.

He said nothing, quickly growing pale once again.

" _Took_ you long enough!"

Silver froze. "…huh?"

The swampert laughed. "Goodness, that took you _forever_!"

He remained still, having absolutely no idea what to do.

"Strong push, too! You're stronger than you look, I'll definitely give you that!"

Silver still didn't get it. "What was the point of that?"

"To teach you something." she answered. "I was joking about all the dream crap, I was just making that stuff up!"

Not knowing how to react, Silver waited for her to speak once more.

"Silver." she said. "If you're going to be a trainer, you're gonna have to learn to be more assertive. You won't be taken seriously if you can't give orders properly."

Silver started catching on, but he was more relieved at the fact that she wasn't going to kill him than to there being a reason that she stared him down for two hours.

"You'll thank me later. For now, get some rest." she let out a quick yawn. "I'm getting a little tired myself."

She moved over beside him, lying down on her side, facing him. "I hope you don't mind."

Silver didn't really care at that point. She seemed rather clingy, and he realized that he would have to accept it.

 _Gotta start somewhere, right?_

Silver wasn't very tired, as he only had just slept for about two weeks. He noticed that the Pokémon beside him had fallen asleep already.

 _Wish I could fall asleep that quick. Some nights, that'd make things much easier._

He turned to his side, reaching for a remote for the light. Finding it, he pressed a button on it, turning off the overhead.

He turned in the direction of the swampert. As much as he hated to admit it, she almost looked cute asleep to him. It felt strange, how fast his feelings were changing all of the sudden.

 _Maybe this won't be so hard…_

Remembering that he saw a radio on the stand next to him, he reached for it, turned the volume knob down, then turned it on. He set it to be barely audible, but still there nonetheless. He listened as he heard the song "Payphone" play.

 _I've got a lot ahead of me, don't I?_

He reflected on how fast the past events had moved so quickly.

 _We'll see…_

He reached a hand up to his ear to take out his earpiece, only to realize that it wasn't there.

Getting over it fairly quickly, he then noticed the swampert stir slightly before her eyes opened slightly, opening her mouth to speak to him.

"Good night…"


	6. Six

Silver reflected on his thoughts as he had done the entire night, simply lying next to the swampert, thinking. It helped him figure out the situation a little more, the only main thing bothering him being the swampert's drastic change in behavior. He tried his best to let it go, but it stayed on his mind.

He listened as the radio continued playing it's music. He enjoyed whatever station it was on, as it played good music. Most notably, he remembered hearing the song "Rocky Mountain High". The radio seemed almost therapeutic to him, helping him keep himself relaxed.

He looked over to the swampert, who was fast asleep. It made him a little happy, seeing her content, as when he first met her she seemed irritable. He couldn't explain her change of tune, but he kind of liked it. He was glad that she found it in her within the past two weeks to be happy.

Lifting his head, he looked over her to see the clock on the wall.

 _Seven fourteen… Sun should be rising about now._

As the winter season was approaching, the sun rise was normally late. It was a normal pattern.

Setting his head back down, he found himself looking at the swampert once again. He took note of the repetition.

 _It's not like I have anything to do… Let's see, what is there in here…?_

Propping himself up with his arms, he looked around, observing the room. He noticed how dull the room was, noticing nothing but the same clock, as well as a small television across the room, mounted on the wall.

"Lookin' for something…?" he heard the swampert mutter, before letting out a yawn.

He looked to her, seeing her half-open orange eyes look back at him.

"Just looking around…" he said. "It's kind of boring just sitting here, doing nothing."

The swampert snickered. "Welcome to my life." she spoke with a deeper tone than usual. "Or, let me correct that, 9 years of it…"

Silver didn't know what to say in response. He set himself back down on his back, lying down once again. "I bet you need the rest more than I do."

She made a buzzer-like noise, stating that he was wrong. "Incorrect, try again. You don't see me sleeping for two weeks, do ya?"

Silver shrugged. "Point proven, I guess."

He was looking up to the ceiling, seeing a soft glow of orange in his peripheral vision from her eyes. His memories flooded back of him finding out that he didn't have the earpiece in his ear, yet he could understand her.

"By the way," he started. "How can I understand you?" he sat back up, turning his head in her direction.

She let out a soft sigh. "Calm down…" she muttered, apparently still tired. "It's not that big-a-deal…"

"Well, how, then?" he asked intently. "I don't have my earpiece."

"They put the chip from it in your brain or something, I don't know."

Silver was taken aback. " _What?_ "

"I don't know how they do what they do… they did something with that earpiece, and programmed you with it or something…"

Silver shook his head, refusing to accept the idea. "Swampert, you need to stop doing that."

"Doing what?" she didn't know what he meant, but she felt as if she should be offended, according to his tone of voice.

" _Stop messing with me!_ " he said. "It's not funny, and I know I won't be able to live with it!"

The swampert felt anger building in her chest from just the one statement. She closed her eyes, taiking in a deep breath. She was easily irritable, she knew, but she wanted to control herself for once. She felt like blowing up on him, but she stopped herself. There was nothing that could set her off more than being framed for something she didn't do.

"Silver…" she said. "I'm warning you, be careful…"

"Careful?" he repeated. "How can I be careful about something when I don't know if what I'm being told is true or not?"

"…don't do this…"

"How could anyone be expected to live like that?"

"Please…"

"I don't need to live with anyone that's going to do that to me."

"Stop…"

"If you're gonna do that to me, you can just stay here!"

With that, she moved over and grabbed him by the shoulders, shoving him into the mattress. She lifted her own body up, moving over him just like she had the night before, except this time with the intention of scaring him. She moved her face close to his.

"You're making a dangerous mistake." she said, quiet yet assertive. She let all of her weight press into him, watching his face, seeing that her tactic was working. "It wasn't _my_ idea, it wasn't _my_ doing, and it sure as hell wasn't _my_ choice. If you can't learn to avoid attacking others without willing to listen to the whole story, I _won't_ go with you. I've made it through the past nine years on my own just fine, and, from the looks of it, you _need_ me. That ninetales may be smart, but she can't do _half_ the things I'm capable of. And I know that _she's_ definitely capable of killing you."

Silver was having a little trouble breathing evenly, all of her 180 pounds of weight pressing on his body. He said nothing.

"Think about what you say before you say it." she said. "Next time, you might not get so lucky. _You won't_. I'll make sure you don't. I'm not afraid of hurting you, and frankly _, I'm running out of options_."

Silver lifted his hands to his sides as a sign of submission. Seeing this, she slowly moved off of him.

"We'll talk about the situation more later." she said as she lied down the way she did originally. "For your own good, let me sleep first."

Silver remained in the position he was in, save for his arms slowly setting back down to his sides. He was nearly frozen out of fear, as she had reminded him once again of how scary she could be.

The swampert watched him, as he seemed a little too scared for her taste. She felt bad about it.

"I'm sorry…" she said. "Come here." she reached over him with an arm, pulling him towards her. She moved towards him in the process, gently wrapping her arms around him.

Silver didn't know what to think. How sporadically she was acting, it was too much for him to process.

"Don't think I don't care, Silver…" she said near his ear, lowering her chin. "Sometimes, we're like glow sticks. We need to break before we can shine, you know?"

Silver, noting the admittedly good advice, said nothing, as he was unsure of how to react. More than reminded that she could easily hurt him, he decided that it would be best to go with it. Not only that, but needed to make sure she would stay with him, as he knew she was right. He needed her on his team. He was cautious as he slowly put his arms around her in return, deciding that it would be the best move he could make.

"I'm the one that should be apologizing…" he said to her, unsure of what to say. "I tend to freak out when I hear things I can't make sense of, I'm sorry."

"It's _okay_ …" the swampert replied. She was glad he was willing to cooperate, as she was more than familiar with how things went when someone chose not to.

"You know…" Silver muttered. "It's funny. No offense or anything, but I just feel a little uncomfortable with your… _advances_? Is that a good word? Well, I can't decide if I like you or not because of it. For some strange reason, I just can't describe it..."

The swampert smirked. "Well, whether or not you like me, I've liked you from the start. I know a good person when I see one. I'm just really bad at learning to trust."

Silver understood.

"Once I do get to trust someone, though…" she said. "I get kinda… clingy. I mean, just look at me, I just scared you to death and back, yet I'm grabbing on to you. It's how I am. I hate showing my emotions, but sometimes I need someone I can _trust_ to spill them out to. Someone who'll understand them, you know?"

"Okay…" Silver said awkwardly. He tried his best to be accepting to her ideas, but it didn't make him feel any better about the situation they were in.

"I kinda marked you as that already, though… sorry…" she muttered before letting out a half-hearted chuckle. "You seem to be the kind of guy that's good at that kind of stuff…"

Silver was confused about it. Was he?

"I don't know if you can really… say that..." he said. "But, you know what? If it's really that big of a deal, I might try, if you want..."

The swampert stroked his hair softly with her hand. "Whether or not you're willing to, it's gonna happen either way. But thanks."

"Uh, sure, you're welcome, I guess." he was too close for comfort to her. He much preferred to have his own personal space.

She let out a small sigh through her nose. "You think how I've been acting is weird." she said. "I can tell."

"Well, I kinda _said_ that..." Silver said. He tried to say it as nice as possible without setting her off.

"Sorry…" she said. "I don't usually act like that, I don't know what's gotten into me lately, it's just that I'm just glad you're okay again, that's all."

"That, and as you said, you're 'clingy', right?" Silver suggested.

"Yeah, that." she said. "I tell myself that I'm better off on my own, but if I've learned anything in the past decade, I've learned that it isn't true… I guess I'm just desperate for someone…"

Silver caught on, as the information she was giving to him suddenly clicked together. "You want someone to trust, don't you? Someone you can appreciate, and who'll appreciate you."

"Yeah, that…" she mumbled.

"I know what you're talking about." he said. "I lost my parents in a fire. I was more than lucky to have Spark with me."

"Ninetales told me about that." she said. "I'm sorry for your loss…"

Silver started noticing how often she said that she was sorry. "Why do you keep apologizing? I'm the one that's been rude."

She shook her head. "I don't know, I just feel that it's necessary, that's all."

"Well…" Silver started. "I appreciate it and all, it's just… strange…"

"I know, I know…" she said. "I'm acting different, I get it. You might as well get used to it. You're my 'emotional scapegoat' now, if you will."

Silver rolled his eyes. "If you say so..." He didn't know how to feel about being an 'emotional scapegoat', but he knew he was ought to find out.

They were both quiet for a little while. Silver thought it was kind of weird to almost get in a fight with the swampert, only for them to hold each other for some reason, but the swampert seemed to enjoy it, so he didn't fight it. Even if he did, he knew that if she didn't want him to move, he wasn't going anywhere.

Doing just about nothing, Silver started thinking of another way to keep the swampert content without having her grab all over him. He wanted something a lot simpler. Something that would work long-term, something that wouldn't get old.

Thinking of something, he soon thought of a good idea. She's a water type, so she has to like _water_ , right? It would be stupid if she didn't.

"Swampert." he tried getting her attention.

"Hmm?" he hadn't noticed that she had fallen half asleep.

"You're good at battling, right?"

"No, not at _all_." she said sarcastically. She squeezed him uncomfortably tight, aiming to prove her point. "There's no way I'm strong enough for _that._ "

"Okay, okay, I get it." he said. "I'm allergic to dying, so if you'd be a little more gentle..." she loosened her grip on him before he finished his thought.

"What makes you ask?"

"Well, if you can help win some battles, I just might use some of that money to get you… I don't know, a nice gift, or something."

She snorted. "I _hate_ materialized gifts. What could you possibly get me that would be good enough to pass as some sort of _gift_?"

"Oh, I don't know…" he said facetiously. "Try, I don't know… I was thinking, one we got to my house, I could get, I don't know… an in-ground _pool_?"

Hearing that made her snap wide awake. She pulled her head back and looked him in the eye.

 _Bingo._

She seemed almost speechless, merely given the idea.

"…You're serious?" she said it less as a question, more as a statement.

Silver smirked. He knew he won. "Do we have a deal?"

She smiled. "How could I say no? That would be _awesome_!"

She squeezed him a little too tightly as she hugged him out of excitement. She quickly released him as she heard a few popping sounds coming from his back, scaring her. Silver coughed as she released him. She didn't remember to be careful to him.

"Sorry!" she said as she realized that he wasn't meant to take that kind of pressure. "I didn't hurt you too badly, did I?"

"…you're cool…" he mumbled. He seemed a little dizzy. "Just… _don't do that…_ "

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah… I'm good." he said, seemingly regaining his composure. "I wouldn't say the same about my back…"

"Here, let me help." she said. She reached over to him, slowly lifting him so he was sitting up, her moving with him in the process. She moved his arms so they crossed his chest, grabbed his elbows, and lifted him, quickly dropping him and lifting him in repetition, his back popping some more. She set him back down after she heard him sigh in relief.

"Thanks…" he said. Admittedly, his back felt better than it had the whole time. He lied himself back down, the swampert doing the same.

"Yeah… sorry, though… got a little excited there…" she said. She felt bad for hurting him. "You wouldn't believe how long it's been since I've felt water on my skin like that…"

"I… I'm sure…" Silver said slowly. "That's why I said it…"

They both lied there, next to each other. The swampert held onto her head with both of her hands, trying to burn the thought of 'don't squeeze people' into her brain.

As she was in the middle of doing so, she noticed a nice shade of light coming out of the window closest to her.

She got up and made her way off of the bed before getting up on her hind legs to reach the blinds, opening them, one at a time. The sunrise was visible out the window.

"Looks nice outside." she said. "If you're feelin' up to it, you should come see."

"Maybe in a moment." he said. "First, let me make sure I remember to never get you excited about anything while I'm in arms-reach of you."

"I said I'm _sorry_." she groaned. "I mean, I _did_ fix your back for you." she turned around, getting back down on all fours. She made her way around the bed, going over to the side Silver was on.

She watched him sit up, starting to wonder what his house looked like. She quickly became curious as to how it looked.

"I should be out soon, right?" Silver asked, hoping she would know.

" _Pfft_."

Silver took that as a sign that she didn't know and accepted it.

"You'd have to ask those weird doctor people, wherever they may be." she said. "I wouldn't know where to find them, though. One of 'em oughta turn up eventually."

Silver silently acknowledged her with a small nod, before turning, draping his legs down the side of the mattress. He felt a sharp pain in his left ankle as he did so, regretting his quick movements.

"Oh, yeah…" the swampert said. "You also sprained your ankle, forgot to tell you about that…"

"Well, thanks for the warning…" he said sarcastically.

"Well, sorry…" she said.

Silver looked at her. "How sorry _are_ you, today?" he joked.

"Very, apparently." she said. "I'm _ssss…_ "

Silver gave her a funny look as she made nothing but a hissing sound as she corrected herself from saying the word 'sorry' again.

"… _ssssstraannge._ " she couldn't think of a way to finish. She decided that saying that she was strange worked, as he called her strange a moment before.

Silver snickered. "You're telling _me._ "

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I just didn't know how to end that."

Silver gave her a playful glare.

She looked at the ground. "I'm bad at this…"

"It's fine." Silver laughed. "Don't worry about it."

"I'll have to work on that..." She sighed, disappointed in herself. She looked back up to him. "For now, I guess I'll go get some food." she said. "I'll try to get someone to come back with something for you."

"Well, thanks." he said.

"I'll be back, don't worry." she laughed.

"I wasn't… worried…" he said, confused. She gave him a goofy smile before leaving.

 _Why would I be worried…? What reason would I have to…?_

He quickly dismissed the thought, finding it pointless.

He sat there on the side of his bed, the moment not being any more eventful than the majority of night was. He did nothing but wait patiently for her return, or for anything else to happen.

He started wondering about how if he was unconscious for two weeks, how was he fed? He was sure that the doctors knew how to do that stuff without any issues, but it made him curious nonetheless. He had a lot to wonder about, and he felt almost disappointed in himself for thinking about that _one_ specific detail.

He soon started thinking about the whole idea of having a chip in his brain or whatever it was that he was told. The idea scared him, as not only did he not understand the concept, but he had no idea whether it was or wasn't done to him.

He cleared his mind, focusing on the radio. He recognized it, but he didn't remember the name. It was an older song.

He sat rather still, simply waiting patiently for the swampert's return.

The room was quiet for a few moments before he heard footsteps coming down the hall. It was Kristie, his neighbor, followed by the swampert.

"Hey," he heard Kristie say as the two of them entered the room. She was carrying a tray with food on it. "Your Pokémon told me that she was getting food for you, so I decided to help out."

"Well, thanks." Silver said as she handed the tray to him. "I appreciate it."

"You're good." she said, taking but a step back from him, standing in front of him. "I don't have a problem with helping out a friend."

"Even if you did," the swampert joined the conversation. "You know you'd have to take care of him, anyways."

Kristie didn't respond to the swampert, as, Silver knew, she couldn't understand her. On the topic, Silver though about the whole ordeal about the earpiece once again.

"So, where'd my earpiece go?" he asked Kristie simply. She froze. Silver knew, then, that she knew something.

She remained in thought for a moment. "Oh… the earpiece?"

"Yup."

She nodded slowly, looking behind her to the swampert and back. The swampert did nothing but watch intently, seemingly entertained by the situation.

"Well…" she said. "First of all, it wasn't my idea. I just want to get that across."

"She," Silver nodded his head towards the swampert. "said something about it being implemented into my brain. Know anything about that?"

She was quiet. "Well, I… I do…"

Silver listened intently, eager to be given information.

"I had nothing to do with the operation." she said uncomfortably. "If I'm not mistaken, it was your luxray's idea."

Silver was quiet, mentally rejecting the idea of Spark being the reason for this. He didn't like how she turned the blame onto his best friend.

The swampert saw the look on his face, and knew he was thinking this.

"It was." she said. "Everything she's telling you, from what I know, is the truth. Don't be mad at her for it, she's trying to help you out."

Silver was still for a moment more. He didn't know what to think, but it was two versus one. He looked to the ground, loosening the tension in his muscles. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable, I just _really_ need to her this cleared up."

Kristie stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You're fine." she said to him. "You'll have to talk to your luxray about it. I'm sorry no one told you about it."

" _She_ did." Silver reminded her, gesturing to the swampert once more.

"Right…" she said, partially embarrassed from the fact that she forgot as quickly as she did. "Well, good thing you have her as a friend."

Silver nodded, looking over to the swampert with his eyes, his head remaining in its fixed position. "Good thing, indeed…"

The swampert tilted her head slightly to the side as Silver looked back to Kristie.

Kristie backed up a little bit rather quickly. "I've got stuff that I need to take care of." she said. "You should be out by tonight. We were planning on having you out of here last week, but we had to wait since you were still in a coma."

She turned to the swampert, who seemed frozen, staring Silver down. Kristie turned back to Silver. "I have to go. Me, or someone else will come in here to check on you in a while."

She then turned and left the room. Silver looked over, only just noticing how the swampert was looking at him. She seemed almost lost in thought, watching him, motionless. Silver found himself staring back, wondering why she was looking at him the way she was.

"What you said…" she said softly. "Did you mean that?"

"Did I mean what?" was the first thing that came out of Silver's mouth. He was confused.

She shook her head, looking towards the ground. "Forget it."

Silver gave her a confused, yet concerned look. "You okay?" he didn't know what else to say.

"I'm fine, I'm just…" she paused without finishing.

Silver waited for an answer, but didn't get one. "You're just…?"

She looked up to him. "Nothing."

Dismissing the thought best he could, Silver picked up the fork off of the tray he was given, taking a bite of food.

"I'm complicated, my thoughts don't work the same way anyone else's do." she said. "Not even Ninetales can figure me out. You know about her being able to read minds and all, right?"

Silver huffed through his nose as he chewed his food. "I know enough about it."

The swampert nodded, looking back down to the floor. "Right… well, she told me that she can't read my mind."

Silver paused for a moment, before he continued eating. He said nothing.

"I'm just too… _different_." she told him. "I don't know what it is, it's just that… I don't know…"

"There's nothing _wrong_ with that." Silver said. "Just because you're different, doesn't mean you're _wrong_."

"Yeah, I guess…" she said. "Doesn't mean I _can't_ be wrong, though."

"Doesn't mean you _are_ , Swampert. Don't get the two confused." Silver insisted.

They were both quiet. After a moment, the swampert made her way towards him, jumping up onto the bed, turning around to sit beside him, lying herself down on her stomach.

"Sorry for being weird and all…" she said. "There's a reason I have trouble getting along with most…"

"You're fine." Silver said. "Everyone's weird in their own way, myself included."

The swampert let out a sigh. "Yeah…"

Silver eventually finished eating his meal, setting the empty tray onto the table next to him. He scooted himself backwards onto the bed a little bit. Trying his best to comfort the swampert, he set his hand on her head, softly rubbing her skin.

"Ninetales told me that you might name us." she said out of nowhere. "Have you thought about it?"

Silver was taken off guard. "Huh?"

"Have you?" she asked. She was fixing to look at him, but something about feeling his hand on her head felt nice to her. She would rather have that.

"I…" Silver thought, wondering why the ninetales would tell her that. Maybe she was making a guess, or suggesting the idea, and maybe she didn't hear it correctly. He didn't know what to think of it.

"What kind of name would you give me?" she asked.

Silver didn't feel any different about the situation.

"And please don't say 'Kipper', that name's overused and annoying."

"I don't know…" Silver said. "I never said anything about naming either of you."

The swampert said nothing, apparently thinking for herself. She was still, as Silver still had his hand on top of her head. She seemed to enjoy it.

"Well…" she said. "The idea's out there for you, now. Might as well think about it, right?"

Silver was, yet again, taken off guard, yet he almost felt obliged to think about it. "You… _want_ me to name you?"

The swampert shrugged. "Well, I bet it'd be nice to have a name… it's better than being labeled like an object, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Silver agreed. He knew that he probably wouldn't enjoy living without a name. It would make things a little more difficult. He decided that he might try to name them, for their sake.

"I'll try to, if that's okay." he suggested.

"That'd be good." she said. "A nice change."

Silver thought about it, and he agreed. Putting himself in her position, he could partially see how it would be a good change.

Silver heard the swampert make an 'ooo' sound as he stopped rubbing her head, starting to scratch it. It was almost funny to him.

She pushed her head up against his hand as he scratched her head, almost in a hypnotic state from it.

Silver chuckled at her reaction to him scratching her. It was funny to see her act the way she did.

The swampert was too distracted to say something about him laughing, as she was too busy enjoying the wonderful sensation that took place on the top of her head.

"That feels good..." she muttered as he continued to scratch her. Silver couldn't help but laugh. He started rubbing her head again rather than scratching, her almost instantly becoming calm again.

She let out a small sigh through her nose, and Silver wasn't sure if it was out of disappointment or not.

"Overreaction, much?" Silver joked. She turned her head to look at him, causing his hand to start petting her upper back.

"Huh?" she questioned. She hadn't realized that she had acted the way she did. She then remembered as quickly as she had forgotten, leaving her to do nothing but shake her head, turning her head forward again.

They were both quiet a moment more, simply enjoying each other's company.

"Where are the other two?" Silver asked. He had seen the ninetales for only a moment the night before, but he hadn't seen anything else of them since.

"Oh, they're just doing their own thing." she said. "They're around."

Silver felt a little worried, but he decided that they would be fine.

She let out another soft sigh through her nose. "Now, if you'd not pet me, I'd appreciate it. I'm not a _cat_."

Silver complied, stopping. "You were enjoying it, weren't you?" he teased.

She was quiet for a moment. "That's not the point."

Shaking his head, Silver pushed himself more onto the bed, moving his legs back up. The swampert saw this, silently obliging to get out of the way.

She moved over to his side as he made himself more comfortable, wary of his ankle. The swampert set herself beside him.

Silver noticed this, and thought it was rather strange how close she seemed to want to be to him.

"What makes you want to be so close to me, lately?" he asked, replaying his thoughts into a sentence.

She said nothing for a few moments, thinking of how to say what she was going to say. She didn't really think about how she was doing so, but being close to someone made her feel more comfortable.

"I guess…" she started. "I guess it might have something to do with you saving us back when we got in that wreck."

Silver was confused. "What do you mean? You're the one that saved _me._ "

She shook her head. "No, that's not what I'm talking about. The others didn't see it, but I did. You turned the car so you'd get hit instead of us."

He quickly remembered what she was talking about at the thought. He hadn't really thought about what he was doing at the time, it just sort of happened. He did it naturally without thinking through his actions.

"I noticed that." she said. "That's why I trust you so much now. _That's_ why I've been acting the way I've been acting towards you."

Silver didn't know what to think. She had been throwing so many strange ideas at him, and now this. At least, unlike the other things she had been telling him, this one made some sense. It took him off guard yet again.

"Well, okay…" he said. "It wasn't that big of a deal, what's your point?"

She gave him an incredulous look. "It _was_ a big deal. A _huge_ deal. If it wasn't for that, we might not still be alive, and that's because of _you._ "

Silver didn't know where she was going with it.

"The reason I'm acting the way I am is because you saved my life, and for two weeks I was scared that you were going to die. I'm acting this way because I don't know how to act. I've never been as happy about something as I am right now."

Silver said nothing, his only acknowledgement being a slow nod. He jumped in surprise when he felt her hug on to him.

"I have a reason to cling on to you." she said. "And I'm happy with it."

Silver froze, doing nothing about the creature's arms wrapping around him, as he knew there was nothing he really _could_ do. He didn't see it coming, but he wasn't surprised that she did so.

She didn't let go of him, continuing to hold him in a hug. "As little as we know each other, thank you for everything."

"And, yeah. You said it yourself, there." Silver said quickly. "The part where you said 'as little as we know each other', that's what I've been talking about the whole time." Unsurprisingly, he was ignored.

Silver had yet to know what to think as he felt her set her chin on the top of his head. He quietly made a list in his head of things he shouldn't do in order to make sure she wouldn't hurt him.

"I'm glad you found me." she said. "I'm the luckiest swampert in the world…"

"Uh, yeah, sure." Silver said. "Now, would you mind letting me go before you squeeze the food I just ate back out of me? Thanks."

She held him for a few seconds longer before releasing him. She felt that she couldn't show her gratitude to him enough.

"Where're the other two at?" he asked again.

"I don't know…" she said. "I… can look for them, if you want."

"That'd be great." he said. "Thanks."

She then made her way off of the bed, quickly making her way out of the room.

 _Man, what is up with her? She's so sporadic, she won't get off of me… maybe she's just that emotional of a character…_

* * *

Sitting in a simple lobby chair, the ninetales watched the small, simple television in front of her, bored and dissatisfied. There was nothing on but a news crew reporting whatever, talking about weather and whatnot. Spark sat in a chair beside her, half asleep, participating in the same simple activity.

They were both quiet, doing nothing but watching the small box flash colors and make noise. They were both disinterested, but neither could find anything more worth doing.

The ninetales turned her head to the hallway, wondering if the swampert would ever show up. She watched for a few moments before turning her head back towards the television.

The news cast then started talking about a tournament of some sort, taking place in a week or so, accepting entries to 'credible' battlers.

Seeing this, the ninetales looked over to the Luxray. "Hey, Spark." she tried to get his attention.

"Hmm?"

"Do you and Silver battle, at all?" she asked him. Spark noticed what was on the screen, getting the feeling she was going to ask him about it.

"We used to…" he said. "We're really out of practice, though… it's been a while…"

The ninetales nodded. She listened intently to the information being given from the broadcast, memorizing every last detail that was given, as she had a great memory, feeling that it would somehow come in handy later on.

"Hey." the swampert greeted the two, entering the otherwise empty lobby.

"Hey!" the ninetales piped up, getting up as the advertisement ceased, seeing her friend. "How was last night?"

"I slept well, for once." she said. "Silver's doing fine, too."

"Good to hear." the ninetales said. "That's for sure."

Spark looked over to the swampert, still only partially awake. "How are you?"

"Fine." she said. "Silver's asking to see you two."

"Cool." the ninetales responded. Spark slowly rose out of the chair he was sitting in, fixing to follow them.

The three started to make their way down the hallway, towards the elevator that would bring them to the room Silver was in.

"So, what exactly were you doing with - or, I should say, _to_ \- Silver last night?" the ninetales asked the swampert out of the blue.

Spark listened to the conversation, curious as to what she was talking about. He hadn't heard of this.

The swampert let out a soft sigh as they made their way into the elevator.

She pressed the button to go to the third floor, remaining calm as she spoke. "What happened last night between Silver and I _stays_ between Silver and I."

The ninetales froze, absolutely clueless as to how to process what she was told.

"I mean, there's nothing wrong with you telling me, is there?"

The swampert turned towards her. "I said what I said."

The ninetales was quiet for a few seconds. "You're not trying to hide something, are you?"

The swampert shook her head. She didn't want to have a debate, nor was she going to.

"Are you?" the ninetales insisted. "You didn't try to… hurt him or anything, did you-?"

"No." the swampert said, cutting her off, an assertive tone present in her voice. She pressed the button to bring them to the third floor again rather harshly. "You know that that's not how I am. Quit jumping to conclusions."

The ninetales left it as it was, not bothering to pester her further. She knew that no matter what she said, the swampert could drown her out. _Quite literally_ , at that.

The door to the elevator closed, and they soon started moving upwards. Spark was looking back and forth between the two, a strong feeling of concern coming over him. He didn't understand females very well, so he decided that the best move was to leave the two of them be.

The elevator chimed as it came to a stop, the door sliding open shortly after.

The three left the elevator, the swampert leading the way down the hall to the room Silver was kept. It was fairly close to the elevator, making for a short trip.

The three entered the room, Silver looking up towards them, noticing their presence.

"Well, hey!" he greeted. They all made their greetings to him in return.

"How are things going?" the ninetales was the first to converse.

"Perfectly fine." he responded.

"That's good." Spark was the one to speak this time. "Glad to see you're hanging on."

Silver nodded as a sign of gratitude. "I had a question for the three of you." he said. "Though, I think I might have already mentioned it to you at one point." he looked to the swampert.

The three listened intently.

"So," he started. "What do you guys think about battling?"

The three had different reactions to the question, but not one of them said anything. The swampert had a slight grin on her face, the ninetales didn't really mind the idea, and Spark was rather uneasy.

They were all quiet. "Well?" Silver asked.

"Sure." the ninetales was, again, the first to speak. "I wouldn't mind. Could be fun."

Silver looked to the other two. "What about you, Spark?"

Spark was hesitant. "I… don't know…" he said. "You remember what happened the last time we battled someone?"

Silver shook his head. "Spark, I know what happened. Those things happen sometimes. Sometimes, you just have to move on."

"Wait, _what_ happened?" the swampert piped up.

"I almost _died_ is what happened." Spark said. "That was the day we learned why _ground types_ are so significant."

The swampert snorted. The ninetales glared at her, and she lost her grin, understanding that it wasn't appropriate.

"Well, now I've done my research." Silver said. "We're more prepared than ever for that. Not only do I have a better understanding of it, we also have a team of three."

Spark looked to the floor. "I guess I'll do it, then…" He looked to the other two. "But if something happens, you two better have my back."

"No problem." the ninetales said.

"We'll see." was the swampert's response.

Spark looked over to her. "I can hurt you just as bad as you can hurt me. You'd realize that, if only your brain was as big as one of those little logs on your hand you call fingers..."

She shook her head at him, laughing, her small smirk back on her face. She couldn't believe how little he knew. "We can bet on that if you want, _kitty cat._ "

"Hide behind your fat little arms all you want, you're not shaking me."

"Why would I need to 'shake' you when you're light enough for me to throw?"

A few volts of electricity were visible flashing on Spark's fur coat as they locked eyes.

"Guys, just relax. There's plenty of time for that later." Silver said, the two refusing to break eye contact.

A few more seconds passed before the two's heads abruptly butt into each other, both of them complaining from the unpleasant experience.

"You've got to remember that I'm still here, you two. Calm it down." the ninetales barked.

The other two Pokémon looked at her in an irritated fashion before looking back at Silver.

"So you can use telekinesis, too?" Silver said. "You're not a psychic type."

"Telling me I'm a certain 'type' of anything is doing nothing but giving me a label." she said. "I've had more years of experience practicing doing just that than you all have had weeks of being alive. _Combined._ "

"Or so you say." the swampert retaliated. "I'd bet you're wrong about that."

"Swampert, if I got a minute older for every time you made a smart remark like that, I'd be dead by now, I _swear_."

"Guys, please, just get along." Silver said. "Is it really _that_ hard?"

"We're not arguing, they're just scared of me." the swampert said facetiously.

"Give it up." Spark said. "I don't need a lot of meat on me to be threatening."

"You look like you're made of nothing but fur." the swampert said back to him. "And I thought _grandma_ over here was furry."

"Can you guys just shut up already?" the ninetales said.

"I could tear you both up before you'd be able to realize it if I wanted to." Spark challenged.

"You're nothing but a _twig_." the swampert snapped back at him.

"I don't need to say that I'm better in order for you two to know it." the ninetales said. "Actions speak louder than words, guys, we'll settle it later."

The three silently agreed to this, looking back to Silver soon after.

"Okay…" Silver said, not sure what to think. "Well… I guess… it's… settled…?"

Spark sat up straight abruptly.

"Ninetales." he said. "What was that thing you saw on the TV earlier?"

The ninetales' posture straightened as she remembered precisely what he was talking about. "That's right, there's going to be a tournament soon."

Silver was quickly interested. "You mean a battling tournament?"

"Yeah, there's supposed to be a lot of people there." she replied. "There are openings still. You should sign us up."

The other two nodded quickly in agreement, the whole group seemingly getting themselves excited at the thought of the opportunity.

"Alright." Silver said. "Let's do it."


	7. Seven

**In my opinion, this is a weird chapter. Prepare to see some battling stuff in chapter eight, though!**

 **Also, seven is my lucky number. That's totally relevant.**

* * *

"Well, here we are."

The group entered Silver's house one at a time, Spark and the ninetales both already familiar with the building. The swampert, however, wasn't, as she seemed somewhat intrigued by it, as she entered behind the other two, Silver behind her.

"Nice place you have." she commented. She quickly felt comfortable with the atmosphere.

"Well, thanks." Silver said in return. "I've worked on it for a while."

"I can tell." she was looking around, taking in how open it was. It felt like something she wouldn't have a problem getting used to.

"Make yourself comfortable." Silver said. "If you feel like sleeping, go ahead. It's getting late, after all."

The swampert nodded. She didn't feel very tired, but she appreciated the independence he was giving her.

"I'm going to be in my room." Silver told her. "I usually stay up late."

"Ah." she said. She understood, as it was a similar pattern for her, having lived the way she had for almost 10 years.

At that, Silver made his way down the hallway leading to his room. The swampert followed him.

Following him in, she looked around, seeing the kind of things he had. He had plenty of books on a bookshelf on one of the walls, a desk, his bed, and plenty of other things.

Silver had only just noticed her, not having realized that she followed him. He seemed surprised at first, but had quickly gotten over it. The swampert saw this.

"You alright, there?" she asked him, entertained by his reaction.

"Yeah, it's just…" he struggled to figure out how to say what he was going to say for a moment. "As large as you are, you're awfully quiet."

She felt like laughing at his statement, but didn't. She couldn't come up with an explanation. "Just is what it is, I guess."

"Guess so." Silver said. He moved over to his bed before sitting on it. He sat there and relaxed.

The swampert remained standing where she was. "So, what do you guys usually do around here?"

Silver thought about it. "Well, nothing in particular…" he said. "Just whatever, I guess."

The swampert dwelled on the thought. "Then how do you afford to get all the stuff you have?"

"I make stuff." he said simply. "People ask me to make stuff, I make it, they pay me. It's simple, really."

She didn't quite get it. "What do you mean?"

Silver stretched his back. "I'm a creator." he said. "I'm good a making stuff, but I usually don't like doing one specific thing. Like, I don't like doing nothing but drawing when I can do something with music stuff, too."

She slowly nodded. The idea of having it be a job didn't make sense to her, but she left it as it was.

"It's nice being kind of independent, sometimes." he said. "But too much of it leads me to not knowing what to do with it, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess so." she said. She then felt a sudden urgency to see what the backyard looked like, as she remembered what he said about getting a pool. She realized that walking out in the middle of a conversation without explanation could be rude, so she stayed. The thought bothered her nonetheless.

"What kind of stuff do you make?" she asked, trying to make conversation.

"Plenty of kinds." he said. "Depends on what I'm asked to make. I make mostly computers and techy things, though."

"Okay." she responded.

 _Guess that explains the earpiece…_

She watched as Silver reached for his laptop. He opened it and started doing stuff.

"You mind if I look around your place a little?" she asked, deciding to leave him to do his own thing, as she had come to realize earlier that she had grabbed onto him enough for one day.

"Help yourself." he said. He was typing away, apparently getting himself quickly involved with something.

She then turned and left the room rather slowly, taking her time. She made her way through his dimly lit home, as the outside light had started to become orange, the night soon to come. It wasn't long until she found the back door, struggling only for a short moment to open it.

She stepped out on the back porch, seeing that there was a perfect view of the sunset. It took her off guard, but she enjoyed it dearly. She gently closed the door behind her, keeping it slightly cracked open. She moved and sat on the wooden structure, admiring the colors and beauty of the evening sky.

The horizon's color was almost that of part of the rainbow. It had a soft haze of green, the rest of the sky filled with an intense shade of orange. The sun's light showered across the sky in streaks, illuminating the clouds in its path. It was something to admire. She was in awe.

Taking in all of the different colors, memories quickly flooded back to her of how she and her old friend, a feraligatr, would do so. It was routine for them, a pass time they enjoyed. The two would do so every evening. Even the froakie would take part when he was with them. She reflected on these memories, a mix of both happiness and sorrow in her heart. She loved them both, she knew, whether or not she was willing to admit it. She still hated herself for when the froakie died. She felt on the urge of crying, just at the thought. She tried her best to focus on the sunset in front of her to keep herself from getting too emotional. It was a struggle.

Thoughts of the feraligatr came to her as well. When she was down, there was no one that knew to make her feel better than him. He was a great friend to her. He was the only one that could read her, and she never understood how. She hoped he was okay, but it struck her hard as she knew that she wasn't going to see him ever again.

The swampert didn't notice as the door creaked open, as Spark came out, seeing her. He stepped out onto the porch, closing the door behind him the way it was originally, the sound then getting her attention.

She turned her head to look behind her, seeing the luxray. Spark noticed.

"You okay?" he asked her. She hadn't noticed originally, but a few tears had gone down her face.

She had only just noticed as she bent her head down, wiping her eyes one by one with a hand. "I'm fine." she said. "What brings you out here?"

"Felt it was necessary." he said simply. "It seems like something's bothering you, and, if we're on the same team, I'll have your back, so here I am."

The swampert was quiet. "I'm not the kind to talk about how I feel."

"That's okay." he said. "Not everyone is… to be honest, I'm not either."

She said nothing, turning her head to face back in front of her.

"Something's obviously bothering you." he said. "I'm willing to help you out."

"I don't need your help." she said in a dark tone. "I'm fine on my own."

"You're emotional, I get it." Spark replied. "We all get like that from time to time."

"Some of us cope with it best on our own, okay?" she was becoming agitated. "The best thing you can do right now is leave."

"Doesn't mean I will." he said. He walked up beside her and sat down as she did. "If I've learned anything about you in the past few weeks, it's that you're emotionally driven. And if that's the case, I'd imagine, keeping all of that inside must be difficult."

She said nothing.

"I'm telling you that if you let us see another side to you than the part that wants to be isolated, dark and depressed all the time, things will turn out bet-"

"Shut. _Up._ "

Spark stopped talking. She turned in his direction, face to face.

"I don't care how you see me, I don't care what you think of me, and I don't care of what you say about me to anyone else. But if you're going to go to my face and start insulting me for the way I am, I'll tell you now, you will regret it until the day you _die_."

Spark was taken off guard. Why was she attacking him when all he wanted to do was help?

"You can go and tell yourself that you're right about me being 'driven by emotion' or whatever, but just remember that one of my most powerful emotions is _anger_."

Spark didn't know what to say. He didn't expect her to blow up on him, but he knew that she still needed help with whatever was bothering her. He didn't want to risk it, so he decided to accept defeat.

"Fine." he said, starting to back away. "Just know that whatever it is that's bothering you is going to eat at you until you tell someone about it."

" _Try_ me."

At that, Spark had gone back inside.

The swampert let out a sigh as she heard him leave. She knew that the way she was acting was wrong, but she didn't know how else to act.

She was there for a minute longer before she heard the door open once again.

" _What_."

"Chill, it's just me." it was the ninetales this time.

The swampert let out a sigh. "What do you _want_ …"

"You seem a little down." she said. She made her way near her, sitting beside her just like Spark had. "I'm here for you, that's all."

The swampert was quiet. She appreciated her friend caring, but if she was to be open to her about it then it would be unfair to Spark.

"What's bothering you?" she asked her.

"If you're so smart, figure it out _yourself._ " the swampert said back harshly.

The ninetales was quiet, seemingly in thought. Being as smart as she was, she would probably figure it out.

"I see…" she said, implying that she did. She was quiet for a moment longer.

The swampert said nothing, simply looking off into the distance.

"You miss him… don't you…?" the ninetales muttered.

The swampert looked to her. "Yes."

"Me too…" she replied. "Care to know what happened with Feraligatr after you left?"

The swampert froze, worried about him from the way she worded it.

"Fine." she concluded. "Tell me."

The ninetales cleared her throat. "Well…" she started. "The night you left… our trainer was blaming you about… things…"

The swampert listened intently.

"…and you left… well, after that, Feraligatr soon found out, and he was mad. More than mad, I mean, he was ticked. _Furious._ What ended up happening, which, I hope it makes you feel better to hear and all, he, uh…"

She was quiet for a moment. "He attacked him."

The swampert looked at her in surprise, her expression saying it all, words unnecessary.

"He went crazy… he ended up breaking three of his ribs. Put him in the hospital for a while. You'd think it would've taught him something…"

The swampert didn't know what to think. She never knew anyone as calm as him.

"Since then… Feraligatr never said a word to anyone. Not once."

The swampert shook her head. "I didn't know what I was leaving behind when I left… I should have thought it through more…"

"It was ought to happen eventually." the ninetales told her. "If _I_ was driven to leave, you would've been at one point or another."

The swampert didn't want to accept how right she was. "What about him? Where's Feraligatr, then?"

"From what I know, he's still there." she said. "If he figures out that he hurt you, I don't see him letting him get away alive."

The two were quiet. The swampert turned up to the almost completely set sun.

"Looks nice out tonight, doesn't it…?" She decided to change the subject.

"It does." the ninetales replied. "Couldn't say the same about the temperature…"

"Yeah, well…" the swampert started, but never finished.

"Come on, let's go in, it's getting cold."

The swampert didn't move as the ninetales started moving towards the door, stopping as she noticed that the swampert wasn't following her. "You coming?"

"I'm going to wait until it's over." she said, referring to the sunset in front of her. "I'll be inside in a few… maybe… dry myself up, too…"

The ninetales was still. "I guess I'll join you… only for a few minutes, though…"

She moved back beside her friend, and they both watched the remaining length of the sunset. As there was no immediately noticeable movement to it, gradual change was easy to see, as it quickly became dark.

"C'mon, let's go in." the ninetales said, slowly standing up.

The swampert was hesitant. "You know…" she said. "You know that feeling that, as badly as you want to hold on to something, you have to let it go? You don't want to, but you know that it's inevitable and you have to?"

The ninetales stopped and turned to her. "Yes…" she said steadily. "Yes, yes I do."

The swampert nodded, still looking out ahead of her. "That's how I feel… about it all…"

Thinking of something to say, the ninetales, for once, couldn't come up with any good advice to give. "Let's go in." she said. "We'll figure out the whole tournament thing with Silver, it'll help clear your mind."

The ninetales made her way to the door as the swampert hesitantly followed. They made their way through the house, back to Silver's room, where he was on his laptop, Spark sitting beside him.

Silver looked to them and back a few times before folding the laptop closed.

"So," Silver said. "The whole tournament thing."

The three were listening.

"I was luckily able to meet the requirements to sign us up, so I did, and they already accepted."

The three all seemed ecstatic about it, all expressing it in their own ways.

"But," Silver said. "If we're going to do well, we're going to need to know what to do."

The three were listening intently. Silver opened his laptop back up.

"So," he started. "These battles work as one versus one at a time, three on each team."

The three understood, as it wasn't an unusual concept.

"You battle until the opponent is knocked out." he said. "You don't kill them…"

Silver was looking at the swampert. She noticed this, saying nothing.

"Our opponents know what they're doing. Take them seriously, they came to battle."

"Nah, they came to goof off." the swampert said sarcastically. No one replied to it.

"Spark, it'll be a lot tougher than the wild Pokémon we've been training you against, make sure you're ready for that."

Spark nodded in acknowledgement.

"Now, when the first Pokémon is sent out, neither trainer knows which one is sent out. I'll try my best to make sure I don't put any of you against something you can't go against, but there's only so much I can do."

The three seemed to understand. Silver looked onto his laptop some more.

"Ninetales, you're the most experienced, I'll probably send you out first."

The ninetales nodded. "Got it." she said.

"Cool." he replied. "Now, remember - if you're up against something you can't take on very well, try to dodge. Dodging is always important, but especially when your opponent can do more damage than you. Try to adapt your attack to do as much damage as possible."

He turned to the swampert. "That doesn't mean to kill them."

"I _get_ it…" she groaned.

Silver gave her a smirk before getting back on topic. "So, sometimes, though, you can only do so much. One of you may be forced to finish off the other team on your own, so make sure you're prepared for that, too."

He turned to the swampert again. "That doesn't mean-"

"I get it. _Shut up_." she interrupted.

"She's not really in the mood for that kind of stuff right now, Silver." the ninetales told him.

"Ah…" he said. "Sorry."

He focused on the topic at hand once again, giving them another random tip. "If you can't land a hit, don't exactly stop attacking, either. Let them wear themselves out, just make sure you don't wear yourself out first. Say, using ranged attacks - your opponent will have to move a lot when you use them. When you use melee attacks, they are a lot of quick-reflex movements. There's only so long they can go before you catch them off guard, given that you don't get tired first. Endurance is important."

The three took in the information.

"If you're fighting a losing battle, don't be afraid to give ground. It may seem like a bad decision at first, but you can use it to your advantage."

"How would we do that?" Spark asked.

"It depends." Silver replied. "If you're fighting, say, a melee attacker, use it to get in a few quick, ranged attacks."

"Okay…" he said.

"If you're fighting a ranged attacker, though, use it to take some cover if you can." Silver explained.

"If you know so much about battling, why don't you do it more often?" the ninetales asked.

"That's what I'm trying to do, actually." Silver replied. He tried to find another random tip to give them.

"Know that sometimes it'll be more important to do something quicker than your opponent, rather than doing the most damage."

"I don't get the point of that, but okay." the swampert said.

"It could give you some breathing room, or give you an opening to do something more powerful." he said.

"I still don't get it, but okay." she said.

"Well," Silver said. "Good enough? I'll take the rest from there."

The three exchanged looks, all seeming to be satisfied.

"Good." he said. "We can start practicing for this stuff tomorrow. The tournament starts in three days, so, we basically have only two days to train. The next day, we go."

"Wait, _three days_?" the ninetales didn't believe it. "The advertisement said it was a week away!"

"Well, apparently, it was outdated or something." Silver said. "We can still do it, though. You know that."

The ninetales was hesitant before she remembered that it was the three of them that he was talking about. She quickly regained her confidence.

"Right." she said.

Silver nodded. "Good. Well, I'd say it's going to be a long next few days, so it'd be smart to get some rest."

The three nodded, before heading out of the room as Silver packed up his laptop, putting it back.

Once he was done putting it away, he proceeded to close the door. He stretched his back a little back before taking his socks and shoes off, proceeding to change into lighter, more comfortable clothes to sleep in, nothing but a pair of sweat pants and a simple, thin white tee, he had decided. He took his time to do so, as his ankle was still sensitive.

He finished changing, then moving slowly to the side of the room where the light switch was, turning it off. He made his way over to his bed, sitting down as he tried to relax himself. He felt a little stressed about the whole tournament thing.

"What am I going to do…?" he asked himself. "Will they listen to me? Ninetales, sure, but… Swampert'll probably go and kill someone… and Spark doesn't really remember how to battle to begin with… oh, this is gonna be bad…"

He kept stressing about it, but he decided sleeping on it would be the best decision.

He got himself under his blanket, and lied himself down on his back, looking up at the ceiling.

"What am I getting myself into…?" he asked himself.

He lied there quietly, restless. He didn't know what to think.

He was lying there thinking when he felt the bed shift abruptly. He froze, not sure of what to think, but as nothing else happened, he had calmed down.

He then felt the blankets at his feet move, and he started to freak out in his head again. It was only a moment more before he felt two large hands around his ankles from under the blankets. He was frozen solid.

The hands moved up his body along with their host, him becoming more and more freaked out as he felt whatever it was get up to his chest. His pupils became dilated, everything in the dark visible to him because of it.

He then saw as a head popped out from under the covers, in his own face. "Hello."

It was the swampert.

"What… the…" Silver huffed. He was absolutely terrified before he realized it was her.

"You okay?" she asked lightly.

"You scared the _crap_ out of me…"

"Oh." she said. "Well, maybe you shouldn't get scared so easily."

She had gently lied down on top of him, easily making him uncomfortable.

"Human skin feels weird." she commented. "You feel… sticky."

"I'm _sweaty._ " he said.

"Why is that?" she asked him.

"Well, you scared me pretty bad, for starters." he said. "And also because-"

"You get scared too easily." she interrupted. "You smell like salt water, too."

"That's because I'm _sweating._ " he explained.

"Well, I don't do that, so…" she commented. "That's weird."

"It's not weird, it's a human thing." he said. "It's like a system to keep our bodies cooled down, kind of like how some Pokémon pant."

"Well, I know _lucarios_ have pants." she said. "And scraftys…"

"Not _that_ kind of pant." Silver told her.

"Or, maybe they don't and it just looks like it…"

"The kind of panting with your mouth." Silver stressed.

"Oh." she then understood. "Well, I don't do that, either."

"You're a swampert, you don't have to." he said. "Your body regulates temperatures fine on its own."

"Well, okay." she said. "Never really thought about it… I've never really had to worry about it, either, so…"

"Well, yeah." he said. He was still uncomfortable.

The swampert took one of her fingers and rubbed it against his skin before smelling it. "Yeah, you smell _really_ salty."

"Yeah, I already got that part…" he said. He felt uneasy about what she had just done.

"When will it go away?" she asked. "I mean, I don't have a problem, I mean, I'm used to the smell, I swim in salt water. Just curious."

"When I take another shower." he said. "Tomorrow morning."

"Oh, well, okay." she said.

"Now, _what_ are you doing in my room? How did you get in here?"

"I've been in here." she answered simply.

"…the whole time?"

"Yeah."

Silver quickly felt embarrassed, as he understood that she not only watched him get changed, but she also heard what he said about her.

The two were quiet for a moment.

"You have nothing to stress about, you know." the swampert said to him. "We'll do fine at that tournament. You can't lose with me on your team, you know."

Silver was lost in thought. He was having trouble trying to find a way to process the information he was receiving.

"You've been in here…" Silver muttered. "…the whole time…"

"Well, yeah. We've already been over that." the swampert said in an almost annoyed fashion.

Silver stayed on the thought, feeling a little violated. The swampert seemed to pick up on it.

"Don't worry about being in nothing but shorts in front of me. You don't ever see _me_ wearing any clothes, do you?"

"It's different…" he said. "You… you don't _do that…_ "

"Whatever…" she stressed." Do you see _me_ complaining?"

"I'm not saying that…" he said. "It's degradation."

She let out a harsh huff through her nose, her tone quickly becoming serious. "I've lost multiple friends, lived on my own in the wild for almost ten years, and have been forced to kill others on multiple occasions, yet you're gonna look me in the eye and complain about how I saw you in your _underwear_?"

"I'm sorry, it's just… I like my privacy, that's all…"

"Well, enjoy your whole 'innocence' thing you have while you have it, 'cause you're not gonna have it much longer." she said. "You're lucky enough I don't tell you the things I've seen and done. I've seen some awful stuff…"

Silver responded with nothing but silence. He still didn't really understand the swampert, but he was beginning to piece a few things together. He still didn't like her taking away his privacy, but he felt that coping with her was the best idea. He started to question himself, whether he was really acting the wrong way towards the situation or not.

"Okay…" Silver said. "I'm sorry, I just didn't know you were in here, and it took me off guard. That's all."

"Fine." she said. "Also, what makes you think I'm gonna kill someone? You shouldn't go and assume something like that, you know."

Silver tried to figure out how he would word his response. "Well, from what I've seen… you seem to be a little… rough. Almost like you don't know your own strength."

She coughed in disbelief. "Silver, there's a difference between ignorance and apathy."

Silver paused. "Wait, so you mean you don't care…?"

"No, no, that's not it at all!" she said. "You don't get what I'm saying. I care, I just didn't know how much you could take. That's what I'm saying, of course I care."

Silver slowly nodded, his eyebrows lowered, his face showing concern, accompanied with slight confusion.

"I'm telling you," she told him. "I've done enough killing in my life. I don't _want_ to do that, you know?"

"Yeah…" Silver wasn't able to say much of anything else. He knew, now, that she had killed before. That set of hands on his chest had once been in someone else's blood. It scared him.

"You okay?" she asked him. "You're turning pale again."

"I- I'm fine." he said. He knew he really wasn't, but he didn't find it necessary to give her something else to worry about.

"No, you're not." she said. "Tell me what's-"

She realized what was wrong. She felt bad for him because of it.

"Silver, understand that that was a long time ago." she said. "That's not who I am anymore."

"Yeah, I get it…" he said. "But when someone learns the taste of blood, it doesn't leave them…"

"Silver!" she was getting aggravated. "It wasn't my choice to do it! It was against my will! Why do you think I left that place to begin with?"

"I… I…" Silver stuttered. He couldn't find any words.

"You don't have to worry about me putting you in danger. I love you too much."

Silver froze in surprise. "A- alright…?" he said slowly. He didn't get how she could say that she loved him if they knew each other only for such a short length of time, but he didn't feel like questioning it.

The two were quiet for a while longer, not doing so much as exchanging glances.

"Silver…" the swampert said, deciding that it would be good to change the topic. "Have you ever taken the time to just go, and watch the sunset?"

Silver was completely taken off guard by the question. He thought about it, but came up short. "I don't think so… what makes you ask?"

She let out a sigh. "Well, back when I was with that other trainer… back, before I left… I had probably the best friend I've ever had, Feraligatr. Him and I would go outside every evening and watch the sunset together. We never missed a single one, no matter what happened."

Silver was listening intently.

"And, as hard as it may be for me to still be separated from him still, I was hoping to start doing that again. Would you mind doing that with me…?"

Silver thought. "Not at all." he said. It didn't seem to be that big of a deal to him, and if it made her happier, he wouldn't have a problem with it.

"Thanks." she said. She let out a low yawn.

"You should get some rest…" Silver said.

"Yeah…" she said in response. She then moved off of him, getting beside him on the bed, similarly to how she did so at the hospital.

Silver noticed that she planned on sleeping next to him again.

"You don't plan on making that a _normal_ thing, do you?" he asked her. "The thing about you sleeping in the same bed as me?"

"I do, actually." she said. Silver decided not to respond, as badly as he wanted to.

Silver was on the side of the bed against the wall, and, as he was more comfortable sleeping on his left side, ended up being face-to-face.

"No offence, but do you _need_ to face my direction?" he asked.

"Is there something wrong with it?"

"Well, not really, I was just asking."

"Unless you want me to smack you with the big fin lookin' thing on my back, then, yes, I have to."

Silver nodded. "Alright, then…" the excuse was reasonable.

The swampert shifted to make herself comfortable.

"Well, good night."

"Night."

* * *

Silver found himself rubbing his eyes as he woke up, tired, as something kept him from being able to sleep. He opened his eyes and looked into his room, seeing that is was dark, no light coming from behind his curtains. He started staring at the sharp, red glow of the alarm clock across his room, waiting impatiently for its image to come into focus, as his eyes didn't seem to want to operate. He stayed there, watching as he was slowly able to make it out.

 _Six twelve. Great._

Careful not to wake the Pokémon next to him, he slowly got out of under his covers and sat up on the side of the bed. He let out a silent yawn before he stood up, making sure he was able to keep himself balanced. He started to shuffle his feet, heading for his door.

He gently turned the nob, the door softly creaking as he opened it. He stepped out, leaving it cracked open behind him.

Making his way to the living room, he was able to see fairly fine, as his eyes were adjusted to the dark already. He moved over to his couch where he sat down. He looked around the room, unsure of what to do while he waited for the cloudiness in his head to go away.

Getting an idea, he wound up making his way back into his room. He made sure he was quiet as he entered, closing the door gently. He moved over to the side of the room opposing his bed that the swampert was resting upon, and grabbed his laptop. He moved back over to his bed and sat on the side of it near the foot, setting the laptop in his lap, opening it and switching the power on. He turned down the brightness of the screen as low as it would go as it turned on so it wouldn't hurt his eyes, yet it still stung a little as the screen lit up.

It didn't take long for the device to boot up, as it was fairly fast. He opened his internet browser and navigated to a search engine.

He was about to search the internet when he noticed his mail app had a notification icon on it. He switched over to his mail, and saw that he had an email. He saw that the subject was empty, and that the sender name had a glitch of some sort, as the letters were scrambled and impossible to make out. He decided to open it.

It opened quickly, and he noticed that it was a very simple email. It didn't have all of the colors and pictures a normal, enterprise-made email would have.

He was quick to read it.

 _Silver,_

 _I have seen what has been going on with your life within the past month or so. As you may not know me, I know you well. It has come to my attention that you may need some help, as all of the battling will take up your time. As it would easily give you a source of income, it simply won't be enough for you and your team to live on standards such as the ones you have already. Understanding these hardships myself, I've decided to give you an 'early Christmas gift', if you will. Don't worry, you'll find out what it is pretty soon. You should be fine for battling for a while. Go and prove yourself to the world. You have more backers then you know, so don't let them down._

 _Take care,_

 _W_

Silver found himself staring at his screen, absolutely clueless. He didn't know what to think. Who was this guy? W? Who did he know that had a name that started with a W? Looking back at the email, he re-read the phrase 'as you may not know me'. Maybe he _didn't_ know them, then. It was weird.

Minimizing the mail app he had opened, he was back at the search engine's home page. He then started looking things up about getting a pool built at his house. As he had already promised it, he decided to look into it.

He found a few good deals with some companies, and some more expensive prices with others. He decided on choosing one that had good reviews and feedback and such.

He was busy clicking on a few links, until he eventually found one that would work. He didn't know if he already had enough, or how much more he needed, so in another tab he pulled his bank's website.

He put in his login information, and went to check his balance.

He looked at the amount and was absolutely shocked as it was printed on his screen.

 _$10,568,469.02_

He had _ten and a half million dollars_ in his bank account.

He made a few small coughing sounds in disbelief. He couldn't decide whether it was the best thing ever, or the worst. Someone could have hacked him, or the money could have been stolen. Maybe it was a glitch. He refreshed the page for good measure, but the same number appeared.

He closed out the tab. Overcome with a strong sense of curiosity, he quickly decided to test it to see if it would work.

He opened another tab, and went to the search engine from earlier, and looked up stuff that would only cost him a couple dollars. He found a small keychain flashlight on a website, and chose to purchase it. He put his information in, and clicked the order button.

The transaction went through.

Be opened another tab and pulled his bank information back up, seeing that the number was the same, save for the difference from the transaction. He started to freak out in his head.

He sat there, staring at the balance on his screen. What would he do with that much money? Would he spend it? Save it? Call the cops? He didn't know what to do.

He let out a quiet sigh before turning around, looking at the swampert, who was still asleep.

 _I could get that pool set up to be built… right?_

He turned back to his screen and started typing some more. He came across a few more companies that could get it built. He chose the best quality one he could find, and made a request. He wrote out a letter to them about it, saying that he would pay however much it would take to get it done, and sent it.

He noticed the swampert was looking over his shoulder as he sent it.

"I thought you said that you would do that _after_ we did all the battling stuff?" she mumbled slowly. She sounded almost drunk, as it wasn't difficult to tell that she was very tired.

"Change of plans, I guess." Silver said back quietly. "It'll take a while to be built, so I went ahead and made a proposal."

"Oh…" she said. "Well, okay."

She stayed where she was, watching what he was doing. Silver moved around some of his windows, opening yet another tab in his browser, going to the same search engine as before.

"You comfortable with using pokéballs?" he asked her.

"Nope." she said blankly. "Tried it before, 'nd I'll never do it again…"

"Gotcha." Silver replied.

 _Her and Spark, both… guess that's out of the question…_

He thought, and the question quickly came to him - how would he get there? His car was completely totaled, so he didn't have a car anymore.

It quickly came to him. Since he had the money, he could just go buy one.

He started doing some searching for a car, the swampert still watching what he was doing.

Deciding that he would want to get a car close by, he looked on the websites of some nearby places.

Looking around, he found a specific car that he fell in love with on sight. It was a Porsche Panamera Turbo S, a red color. He had a great interest in it, and the part he liked the most was that he would be able to go pick it up that day.

He looked at the price tag, and saw that it was $223,930 dollars. Usually, he wouldn't do so much as _dream_ of getting something like that, but now that he had the money, he was going to.

Part of him felt like he shouldn't, but, as the email said, it was a gift. He chose to trust that, the temptation of getting such a nice vehicle not making him stop, either.

He went ahead and purchased it, fixing to go pick it up .

"You rich or something?" she mumbled.

"I'll explain later." Silver said. He didn't feel like telling her right then and there.

"M'kay…" she muttered. She seemed too tired to argue.

"You should probably go back to sleep." Silver told her. "I'm gonna head out. If the others ask, tell them that I'll be back."

"Alright…" she muttered, her eyes barely open.

At that, Silver shut down and closed his laptop, getting up and moving across the room, putting it away. He was quick to then get some clothes out of his closet and change into them. He finished doing so, before he moved back over to his bed in a slow manner.

He stopped next to his bed where the swampert was, her lying on her stomach now, in the same position as she was when she was watching him. She had her head and hands near the end of the bed, her body slightly curled to the side.

Silver gently set his hand on her head between the two fins that were attached to it.

"I'll be back in a little while." he said. "I'll see you when I get back."

"Mm-hmm…" the swampert hummed, eyes closed, not bothering to open her mouth to speak.

Silver rubbed her head a little before moving away, making his way out of his room, this time leaving the door open. He grabbed his house key and left out the door, locking the door behind him.

He made his way down his porch stairs, looking to see as Kristie was pulling out of her driveway in her car. Silver jogged over to her so he could see if he could get a ride from her to where he needed to be.

* * *

It was around nine o'clock when the swampert decided to get up. She was having trouble sleeping, as her dreams were filled with nothing but reminders of all of the things she had never done with herself, and how all of her friends were never going to be okay because of her. She didn't think much of it as they were merely dreams, but it made it difficult nonetheless.

She stretched as she got up, staying there only a moment as she was soon to make her way down off of the bed.

Trying to let the fuzziness of her vision go away, she stood still for a moment before she made her way out of the room, into the rest of the house. She made her way into the living room, seeing the ninetales lying on the couch, watching her.

"Morning." the ninetales said.

"Morning…" the swampert muttered. She wasn't one to talk in the mornings.

"Know where Silver's at?" she asked.

"He went somewhere…" she said. "Said he'd be back…"

The ninetales nodded. "Alright."

The two were quiet for only a moment. "Spark awake yet?" the swampert asked.

"No." she said. "He's sleeping pretty heavily, he might not be up for a while."

The swampert silently nodded in acknowledgement. "Couldn't blame him. Hasn't been home in a few weeks."

"Indeed." the ninetales said in return.

The swampert made her way across the room, looking around now that there was more light to see.

"Up to anything?" she asked the ninetales.

"No, not really." she said back. "Waiting for you guys to get up. Nothing much else. That tournament's coming up soon, so I figured that it'd be good to get to training soon."

The swampert rolled her shoulders, one at a time. "I could do that. You mean now, right?"

"I was more hoping for Spark to get up as well, but sure."

"Let's at least, you know, limber up and stuff."

"Very well." the ninetales said. "It's always good to warm up. Glad to see you remembered that, you usually don't."

"Well, you know." the swampert replied. "I'm ought to learn at some point."

The two made their way out the back door.

* * *

"Thanks for the ride." Silver had thanked his friend again.

"I told you, it's _fine._ " Kristie said. "Not that big of a deal. It's not your fault you lost your car."

Silver nodded. "It's awfully nice of you. I really appreciate it."

"No problem." she said. "I'm kind of glad you needed a ride, actually. Help me keep my stress a little lower, you know?"

Silver didn't expect the statement. "What do you mean?"

"Ever worked at a hospital before?" she asked. "It's a lot of work. No two days are the same. You're always up, doin' something. It's crazy, but it puts food on the table and keeps the bills paid."

Silver nodded.

"Oh!" Kristie said out of nowhere. "Heard about that tournament? It's starting in a couple of days. _Everyone's_ going to be watching."

Silver felt nervous from the last part. "Oh, yeah."

"I can't wait. I'm using my vacation time to watch it. Are you going?"  
Silver chuckled a little. "I never got to tell you, did I? My Pokémon and I are going to be in it."

Kristie was taken by surprise. "Really?" she said. "Alright! That's awesome!"

Silver hadn't ever seen her this excited about anything before. She was usually very calm.

"Well, now I know who I'm gonna be rooting for." she said, starting to calm herself down. "That's awesome though. Good luck!"

"Well, thank you." Silver said. "Hopefully, we'll do well."

"Yeah. You should be fine, though. I've seen you and Spark battle before. Now that you've got a team, of, how many? Three? You should be just fine."

"Yeah." Silver said in agreement, despite the doubts that had yet to cease haunting him.

They had finally pulled in to where they were heading. It had taken them a few hours to get there, longer than either of them expected it to take.

"Well, thanks again." Silver said. "You're not going to lose your job, are you?"

"No." she said. "They'll use my vacation time."

"Okay." Silver said, getting out of the car. "I won't need a ride back. Thanks!"

"No problem!" she said. "See you later!"

"Have a good one!" Silver said, closing the door before she left. Silver turned around to see the place he needed to be.

 _Here we are._

* * *

"Alright, give me another one."

The swampert picked up another large rock from the pile they had collected. The two had found some large rocks, and were using them for their training.

She threw it into the air, and as it slowed before coming back down, a large tower of flames came out of the ninetales' jaws, melting it before it hit the ground.

"Hit it as it's _coming up,_ don't wait for it to stop!" the swampert ordered for what had been the second time now. "Your opponents aren't going to stop to let you hit them! The point of this is to work on hitting _moving targets!_ "

"…right."

She threw another one into the air, this time the ninetales burning it as it was moving up, the rock disintegrating before it did so much as stop moving upwards.

"…good." the swampert said. She was impressed with how much the ninetales had progressed since she had last battled beside her. She was much stronger than before, and had become all the much quicker.

"Give me another."  
The swampert proceeded to toss another into the air, the ninetales hitting it near flawlessly.

" _Now_ you're getting it." the swampert said. "You need to remember that you're not going to go against anyone that's willing to be hit."

"Unless they're like _you._ " the ninetales remarked facetiously.

The swampert rolled her eyes. "That was ten years ago, but if you insist…"

The ninetales laughed. "I'm just messing with you." she then prepared herself once more as the swampert threw the second to last rock into the air.

At that point Spark had walked out the back door, observing what was happening in front of him.

"Doing some target practice?" he asked as he approached the two.

"Something like that…" the ninetales said after she finished off the rock. "Looks like we're just about done."

"Yeah, something like that." the swampert said. "Hey, Spark." she then said, getting the luxray's attention.

"Hmm?"

"Think fast!"

At that, she threw the rock in his direction. The Pokémon easily moved out of its way, as if they had planned it.

"That's it?" the swampert complained rather playfully. "You're going to _dodge_ it?"

"Hey." he said. "Remember what Silver said last night. Dodging can be just as important as hitting."

The swampert was still. "Well, against someone else, say, _me_ , sure, but a rock? That's not very exciting, now is it? Blow it into bits!"

"He _can't_ …" the ninetales groaned to her. "Neither can I. Not everyone is strong in that aspect."

"Well, _sure_ , I guess, but still…" she said. "Isn't as fun."

"Doesn't always need to be." Spark said. "Anyways, where's Silver at?"

"He went somewhere earlier this morning, said he'd be back at some point." the swampert said.

"Gotcha." Spark said. "Hope he gets here soon."

"What happens, happens." the ninetales said. "He could be hours away, for all we know. Be patient. He'll get here."

At that, they watched as a car pulled into the driveway. It was a nice red car, and it looked expensive.

They were all still as they didn't know what to think. They watched as Silver stepped out with a smile on his face.

"New car, huh?" the ninetales muttered. "Figures…"

"Of course…" the swampert felt stupid. "I watched him buy the darn thing, I should've known that was why he left…"

Silver approached them as he put his key in his pocket.

"Training already?" he said. "I figured you guys would've waited until I got back… good work."

The three acknowledged him.

"So, here's the deal." he said. "The ride there is going to be really long. The place is almost a full 24 hours away by car, so it turns out that we only have today to train. Think you guys can do it?"

The three exchanged looks, agreeing. They all seemed eager to get to it.

"Alright, then." he said. "Let's get to it!"


End file.
